Evidence Act 1845

1845 CHAPTER 113 8 and 9 Vict

An Act to facilitate the Admission in Evidence of certain official and other Documents.

[8th August 1845]

Modifications etc. (not altering text)

C1 Short title given by Short Titles Act 1896 (c. 14)

C2 Preamble omitted under authority of Statute Law Revision Act 1891 (c. 67)

[1.] Certain documents to be received in evidence without proof of seal or signature, &c. of person signing the same. E+W+N.I.

Whenever by any Act now in force or hereafter to be in force any certificate, official or public document, or document or proceeding of any corporation or joint stock or other company, or any certified copy of any document, bye law, entry in any register or other book, or of any other proceeding, shall be receivable in evidence of any particular in any court of justice, or before any legal tribunal, or either House of Parliament, or any committee of either House, or in any judicial proceeding, the same shall respectively be admitted in evidence, provided they respectively purport to be sealed or impressed with a stamp or sealed and signed, or signed alone, as required, or impressed with a stamp and signed, as directed by the respective Acts made or to be hereafter made, without any proof of the seal or stamp, where a seal or stamp is necessary, or of the signature or of the official character of the person appearing to have signed the same, and without any further proof thereof, in every case in which the original record could have been received in evidence.

2 Courts, &c. to take judicial notice of signature of equity or common law judges, &c. E+W+N.I.

All courts, judges, justices, masters in chancery, masters of courts, commissioners judicially acting, and other judicial officers, shall henceforth take judicial notice of the signature of any of the equity or common law judges of the superior courts at [F1 the Royal Courts of Justice], provided such signature be attached or appended to any decree, order, certificate, or other judicial or offical document.

Textual Amendments

F1 Words substituted by virtue of Supreme Court of Judicature (Consolidation) Act 1925 (c. 49), s. 224(1)

3 Copies of private Acts, printed by Queen’s printer, journals of Parliament, and proclamations, admissible as evidence. E+W+N.I.

All copies of private and local and personal Acts of Parliament not public Acts, if purporting to be printed by the Queen’s printers, and all copies of the journals of either House of Parliament, and of royal proclamations, purporting to be printed by the printers to the crown or by the printers to either House of Parliament, or by any or either of them, shall be admitted as evidence thereof by all courts, judges, justices, and others without any proof being given that such copies were so printed.

F2 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . E+W+N.I.

Textual Amendments

F2 S. 4 repealed (8.11.1995) by 1995 c. 44, s. 1, Sch. 1 Pt. VI Group 1

5 Not to extend to Scotland. E+W+N.I.

This Act shall not extend to Scotland.

6, 7. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F3 E+W+N.I.

Textual Amendments

F3 Ss. 6, 7 repealed by Statute Law Revision Act 1875 (c. 66)