Legal Question in Technology Law in Florida

Re: Blogs

To get some "writing" admitted in evidence in court, whether it's a handwritten letter, a book, a printout of a website, or a printout of a blog, the person who wants the evidence admitted has to "lay a foundation" - that is, introduce evidence that the writing is genuine. The foundational requirement could be met by your testifying that on such-and-such a date, you accessed this web site and made this printout which you request be marked for identification as plaintiff's Exhibit A and admitted into evidence. Your adversary then testifies that he never made such a website and you must have dummied it up. Obviously your quest to have the printout admitted in evidence and possibly believed will be more likely to succeed if some third person testifies that -he- made the printout of the website. Also you may have "hearsay" issues depending on the contents of the website or blog and what it is you are trying to prove.

Re: Blogs

Whether a particular writing is admissible depends upon many factors, but the format in which it was written (book, blog, newspaper, billboard, etc.) seldom matters at all. No type of writing is always admissible, and no type is always inadmissible. In each instance the answer will depend upon what the writing says and the context in which it is offered.

The first hurdle is that it has to be relevant to what you are trying to prove. For example, your question would be admissible to prove that you speak English or that you are familiar with Myspace.com or LawGuru.com, but would not be admissible to prove much else. Even then, I would first have to provide evidence that you are the question's author.

There are many other factors a judge must consider when deciding whether a particular item of evidence should be admitted and I can't begin to even list them all here, let alone explain them.