Rule 1001. Definitions

Definitions. For purposes of this article the following definitions are applicable:

(1) WRITINGS. “Writings” consist of letters, words, or numbers, or their equivalent, set down by handwriting, typewriting, printing, photostating, photographing, or other form of data compilation.

(2) ORIGINAL. An “original” of a writing is the writing itself or any counterpart intended to have the same effect by a person executing or issuing it. If data are stored in a computer or similar device, any printout or other output readable by sight, shown to reflect the data accurately, is an “original.”

(3) DUPLICATE. A “duplicate” is a counterpart produced by the same impression as the original, or from the same matrix, or by means of photography, or by equivalent technique which accurately reproduces the original.

Committee Notes

Advisory Committee’s Notes Paragraph (1). Writings. Alabama’s best evidence rule continues applicable to writings only. Adoption of this rule is a rejection of the corresponding federal rule, which expands the best evidence principle to cover recordings and photographs. See Fed.R.Evid. 1001(1). Chattels generally remain outside the scope of the best evidence principle. See Jones v. Pizza Boy, Oxford, Inc., 387 So.2d 819 (Ala.1980). Tape recordings, for example, present no best evidence issue. O’Daniel v. O’Daniel, 515 So.2d 1248 (Ala.Civ.App.), rev’d, 515 So.2d 1250 (Ala.1987) (holding re-recording of taped conversation admissible without accounting for unavailability of the original tape). See C. Gamble, McElroy’s Alabama Evidence § 212.01 (4th ed. 1991). Nothing in paragraph (1) generally negates those preexisting Alabama decisions declaring the best evidence requirements inapplicable to chattels carrying inscriptions. See, e.g., Benjamin v. State, 12 Ala.App. 148, 67 So. 792 (1915) (best evidence rule inapplicable to inscriptions on a parcel, words written on a valise, and labels attached to jugs or decanters and indicating their contents). Paragraph (1) is broad enough, however, to permit future courts to declare the best evidence rule applicable to an inscribed chattel when, among other things, its communicative nature predominates, its terms are crucial to the dispute, its message is complex, there would be difficulty in a witness’s correctly relating the message, and the size of the chattel would not make its production difficult. Even if an inscribed chattel were held to be within the best evidence requirements, it could yet be admissible as within some exception to the best evidence rule. See, e.g., Ala.R.Evid. 1004(4) (no obligation to produce the original or establish its unavailability, as a prerequisite to introducing oral testimony regarding the contents of a writing, if the writing involves a collateral matter – i.e., one that is not closely related t