In only a few decades, computers have evolved from the stuff of science fiction into fixtures of our daily lives. In the course of this evolution, they have begun to influence society in ways that were beyond imagination only a generation ago. As a social institution, the judicial system will have to adapt to the influence of computers if it is to remain responsive in the years ahead. Unfortunately,

[a] risk is run whenever the law places too much reliance upon the past. This risk appears every time a technological change radically transforms society. Law and the judiciary are suddenly caught unaware and are unable to rely upon principles of law that could not have contemplated the technology before them.

If "law and the judiciary" are to effectively address the foreseeable risks suggested by the use of digital photography as evidence in legal proceedings, doctrines of admissibility will have to develop in response to those risks. These new doctrines might incorporate some of the suggestions offered here, or they might take some unanticipated shape. However the courts finally respond, the issue will have to be confronted soon.


Roderick T. McCarvel