S50 Evidence Act - Voluminous Documents

Question 1

What does section 50 of the Evidence Act 1995 specify?

Answer 1

It relates to proof of voluminous or complex documents;

• The court may, on application, allow a party to adduce evidence sourced from two or more documents in question into a summary;
  If the court is satisfied that it would not otherwise be possible conveniently to examine the evidence because of the volume or complexity of the documents in question.

Question 2

In accordance with section 50 of the Evidence Act 1995 what must happen for a court to accept a summary of voluminous or complex documents into evidence?

Answer 2

• the court may make such a direction if the party seeking to adduce the evidence in a summary has;
• served on each other party a copy of the summary with the name and address of the person who prepared it. And;
• given each other party a reasonable opportunity to examine or copy the documents in question.

Question 3

Does the opinion rule apply to evidence adduced in accordance with section 50 of the evidence act?

Answer 3

Subsection (3) the opinion rule does not apply to evidence adduced in accordance with a direction under this section.

Question 4

Given an example of a voluminous or a complex document for which a summary may be prepared in accordance with section 50 of the evidence act?

Answer 4

Various financial records, telecommunication records, extraction records and more can be summarised via a variety of methods including but not limited to documents, spreadsheets, charts, timelines, graphs, diagrams or other forms of visual display.

But the notice in accordance with this section must also be served.