Page 345 - Magistrates Conference 2019

• the document is or forms a part of a record with respect to any trade or business and

compiled in the course of that trade or business, from the information supplied by persons
who have, or reasonably may supposed to have, personal knowledge dealt with in the

information they supply.
• the person who supplied the information recorded in the statement is dead or absent from

the jurisdiction or unfit by reason of his bodily or mental condition to attend as a witness
or cannot with reasonable diligence be identified of found or cannot reasonably be

expected (having regard to the time which has elapsed since he supplied the information

and to all the circumstances) to have any recollection of the matters dealt with in the
information so supplied.
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In deciding whether a person is unfit to attend as a witness the court may rely on a certificate
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purported to be signed by a registered medical practitioner.

Belize

Business records are admissible in criminal proceedings in circumstances where they contain any

statement of which direct oral evidence would have been admissible to establish that fact where
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the requirements under subsection (2) of the relevant section are met.

Dominica

Statements contained in documents are subject to the general rules of admissibility of evidence,

particularly those relating to hearsay and opinion evidence (in particular expert evidence) and are
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in simply referred to as ‘out of court’ statements.

Magistrates must ensure that the document can be proven adequately and the contents of the
documents can be used for the trial.

The best evidence rule relates to the use of documents as evidence. The rule is that if an original

document is available and can be produced without any difficulty, it should be produced. If the

5 Barbados - Evidence Act - Cap. 121 section 55
6 Barbados: Evidence Act - Cap. 121, section 56(8)
7 Belize - Evidence Act Chap. 95, section 84(2)(a)(b); Part 2, Division 2; Electronic Evidence Act Chap. 95:01
8 Dominica - Evidence Ordinance Cap. 64, section 13(1); Electronic Evidence Act No. 13 of 2010
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