The ABCs of Electronic Evidence: Authentication, Best Evidence and Claims of Tampering – A Step by Step Approach

This program will examine the basic requirements for admission into a court of digital/electronic evidence, including text messages, emails, Facebook, and other social media posts, photographs, and videos. The Canada Evidence Act and most provincial evidence statutes contain provisions dealing with the authentication of digital evidence and the methods of satisfying the best evidence rule in the digital evidence context. Courts are insisting with increasing frequency that these statutory requirements be met before digital evidence will be received.

This program will address how to authenticate digital evidence and how to satisfy the statutory best evidence provisions. It will also discuss where claims of tampering or falsification of electronic evidence should be addressed and when expert evidence is needed. 
 

Speaker

Martha Shaffer, Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto