NT Legal Status of Potential Evidence - Paper Diary vs Computer Diary?

[2015lali]

I keep a diary on a computer and print in out at the end of the financial year. I would like to know its legal status compared to a paper diary. More specifically:how much weight would it carry with the police investigating a legal matter, how admissible is it in court and how much weight would it likely carry in court as evidence?

Also what about video data and logs of GPS coordinates. I can only guess that the weight that these would carry would vary depending on how they are recorded and logged, e.g. by a tracking app on a phone (less weight) cf from a car crash cam. Or another example: the data being logged by you (less weight) cf. logged remotely by a security or other monitoring service.

Thanks.

 

[DennisD]

Hi 2015lali

Starting from general principles whether certain material is admissible as evidence in court depends on among other things how it relates to the case being presented and the facts in dispute. As a result you may have to accept an 'it depends' answer rather than a 'yes' or 'no' answer. You mention a couple of important factors including the reliability and independence of the record keeping which in general may tend to carry more weight than whether something is recorded digitally or on paper.

Let's also see how other contributors respond to this query.

 

[Tim W]

I agree with @Hugh above.

Consider also that records in some forms
may not be acceptable to administrative bodies such as the ATO,
even if they are acceptable to a court as evidence.
For example, ATO may specify a paper diary as the form a record must take,
even if court would accept a body of GPS data in electronic form.

Also, different data may be more or less useful for different purposes.
For example, a court may place more weight on speed data recorded on a truck-cam
than a constable's naked-eye estimate of a truck's speed.

If you can give us a bit more information about your particular problem,
we may be able to make some more useful suggestions.

 

[2015lali]

Thanks to you both. I am not sure I want to go into the details. I don't think it matters at the moment as it hasn't become a big thing. I have gotten similar advice from another person I have asked. I believe I need to keep better times for my activities for my diary.