The Computer and the Law

Computer science and technology is developing so fast that no one can predict exactly what new technology might be developed in the near future, and the development of computer law can hardly keep up with the developing computer technology. The wide spread application of computers in business has created new situations that no existing laws are adequate to cope with. In the following cases, computer generated information was used as evidence but was not all accepted by the court.

A man received some treatment at a hospital but refused to pay the hospital bill because he claimed the figures were not correct. The hospital sued the man. As proof of the amount owed to it, the hospital offered in evidence a computer printout of the services rendered to the defendant and the amounts owed for them. Hospital employees testified that information as to amounts owed by patients in the hospital were stored in a computer as part of a regular business routine. The man objected to the admission of the computer printout as evidence on the ground that there was not a proper comparison checking of original slips showing services rendered against the computer printout.

In order to make it possible to admit evidence produced by computer, the law of evidence of the United States has changed greatly. According to the new rule, computer printouts of business records stored on electronic computing equipment are admissible in evidence if relevant to the material, without the necessity of identifying, locating, and producing as witnesses the individuals who made the entries in the regular course of business, if it is shown that the electronic computing equipment is recognized as standard equipment, that the entries are made in the regular course of business at or reasonably near the time of the happening of the event recorded, and that the foundation testimony satisfies the court that the sources of information, method and time of preparation were such as to indicate its trustworthiness and justify its admission.