Defendant's Computer Printout of Facebook Evidence Excluded as Evidence.

http://ow.ly/60Ekv

Article by Susan A. Ardisson, Esq. appearing on qubit website.


This article discusses a real life example of a case in Connecticut State court where a defendant offered printed evidence of 3 facebook messages, purportedly sent by the plaintiff.  The defendant also provided testimony that the plaintiff "friended" him on Facebook after the incident that was the subject of the dispute.  The plaintiff denied contacting the defendant on Facebook and the evidence was precluded.  The appellate court upheld the decision.

The decision was based on the fact that once the plaintiff challenged the authenticity of the evidence, it was incumbent upon the defendant to offer additional proof that the evidence was authentic.  The court noted that the circumstantial evidence required to authenticate evidence differs for each medium.

This case should serve as a reminder that the rules of evidence require that evidence produced from electronically stored information must still have a proper foundation in order to be admissible.