                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

COPIES OF ORIGINALS AS EVIDENCE (SUBDIVISION (6) OF SUPREME COURT RULE 2:902
DERIVED IN PART FROM SUBSECTION D OF THIS SECTION AND SUPREME COURT RULE 2:1005
DERIVED FROM THIS SECTION) (§ 8.01-391)

A. Whenever the original of any official publication or other record has been
filed in an action or introduced as evidence, the court may order the original
to be returned to its custodian, retaining in its stead a copy thereof. The
court may make any order to prevent the improper use of the original.

B. If any department, division, institution, agency, board, or commission of
this Commonwealth, of another state or country, or of the United States, or of
any political subdivision or agency of the same, acting pursuant to the law of
the respective jurisdiction or other proper authority, has copied any record
made in the performance of its official duties, such copy shall be as admissible
into evidence as the original, whether the original is in existence or not,
provided that such copy is authenticated as a true copy either by the custodian
of said record or by the person to whom said custodian reports, if they are
different, and is accompanied by a certificate that such person does in fact
have the custody.

C. If any court or clerk&#8217;s office of a court of this Commonwealth, of
another state or country, or of the United States, or of any political
subdivision or agency of the same, has copied any record made in the performance
of its official duties, such copy shall be admissible into evidence as the
original, whether the original is in existence or not, provided that such copy
is authenticated as a true copy by a clerk or deputy clerk of such court.

D. If any business or member of a profession or calling in the regular course of
business or activity has made any record or received or transmitted any
document, and again in the regular course of business has caused any or all of
such record or document to be copied, the copy shall be as admissible in
evidence as the original, whether the original exists or not, provided that such
copy is satisfactorily identified and authenticated as a true copy by a
custodian of such record or by the person to whom said custodian reports, if
they be different, and is accompanied by a certificate that said person does in
fact have the custody. Such identification and authentication may be made
through witness testimony or a certificate by affidavit or by declaration
pursuant to &#xA7; 8.01-4.3, or a combination of witness testimony and a
certificate. Copies in the regular course of business shall be deemed to include
reproduction at a later time, if done in good faith and without intent to
defraud. Copies in the regular course of business shall include items such as
checks which are regularly copied before transmission to another person or bank,
or records which are acted upon without receipt of the original when the
original is retained by another party.

E. The original of which a copy has been made may be destroyed unless its
preservation is required by law or its validity has been questioned.

F. The introduction in an action of a copy under this section precludes neither
the introduction or admission of the original nor the introduction of a copy or
the original in another action.

G. Copy, as used in this section, shall include photographs, microphotographs,
photostats, microfilm, microcard, printouts or other reproductions of
electronically stored data, or copies from optical disks, electronically
transmitted facsimiles, or any other reproduction of an original from a process
which forms a durable medium for its recording, storing, and reproducing.

HISTORY: Code 1950, §§ 8-266, 8-267, 8-268, 8-278, 8-279, 8-279.1, 8-279.2;
1950, pp. 604, 640; 1954, c. 333; 1968, c. 723; 1972, cc. 441, 549, 645, 786;
1973, c. 177; 1977, cc. 532, 617; 1978, c. 75; 1979, c. 447; 1989, c. 212; 1990,
c. 355; 1991, c. 145; 1992, c. 393; 2000, c. 334; 2012, c. 802; 2014, c. 398.