There is a balancing act here. On one hand, you don't want to unduly annoyed the judge, but on the other hand under the rules of evidence an image made in the normal course of business is admissible unless the other side can raise credible doubts as to its accuracy and/or authenticity, which normally they cannot do.   The judge does not have unfettered discretion to admit or not admit as he sees fit.  So, if you have a petulant judge that is being difficult and contrary about the admissibility of something, you are at a decision  point and have to decide whether or not the controversy and the record in question are worth getting into a fight about.   Sometimes they are and sometimes they aren't.

 It's worth observing here that in most cases the admissibility of a business record under either the business records exception to the hearsay rule or as an admission of a party opponent are so completely noncontroversial that the issue never rises.

Best regards,

John
John Montaña 
Montaña & Associates
29 Parsons Road
Landenberg Pennsylvania 19350
610-255-1588
484-653-8422 mobile
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www.montana-associates.com
twitter: @johncmontana

			

On Sep 14, 2011, at 3:32 PM, Frederic Grevin wrote:

> Gary asked "I thought this was covered by federal (FRE) and state rules of evidence, many of which say that a copy of an original is acceptable. Can a judge override these?"
> 
> 
> 
> John Montaña and others on the list can say this more sagely than I, but EVERY attorney with whom I've ever discussed this issue has expressed some variant of "no matter what the statutes say, YOU DON'T PISS OFF THE JUDGE!!"
> 
> 
> 


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