Communications from the Shenzhen Wills Service Centre and Shenzhen Notary Office
Whether communications admissible as business records under s 69 of the Evidence Act 2008 (Vic)
Quick Take
1WeChat messages and emails from a foreign business may satisfy s 69(1) of the Evidence Act 2008 (Vic) as business records where the institution is a registered entity carrying on a business and the communications are ancillary to its services, but will fail under s 69(2) where there is no evidence — and no permissible inference from the documents themselves — that the maker had, or was supplied information by a person who had, personal knowledge of the asserted facts.
2Section 69(3) of the Evidence Act 2008 (Vic) is directed to the maker of the representation and the creation of the asserted fact, not to the subsequent obtaining of the communication by a party's solicitor for use in Australian proceedings.
3Where hearsay evidence from an overseas declarant goes to critical issues in the proceeding and the declarant cannot be cross-examined, admission may be unfairly prejudicial under s 135 of the Evidence Act 2008 (Vic); a mere assertion of non-cooperation by the declarant is insufficient to establish that it is not reasonably practicable to call them under s 64.
