Rule 34.38 Admissibility of Documents

This rule applies to a document, referred to in paragraph (2) and authenticated in accordance with paragraph (3), which comprises, records or summarises evidence given in, or information relating to, proceedings in a court in another part of the UK F1or another Contracting State to F2the 2007 Hague Convention, and any reference in this rule to “the court”, without more, is a reference to that court.

The documents referred to at paragraph (1) are documents which purport to—

A document to which paragraph (1) applies shall, in any proceedings in F7the family court relating to a maintenance order to which F8...F9the 2007 Hague Convention applies, be admissible as evidence of any fact stated in it to the same extent as oral evidence of that fact is admissible in those proceedings.

A document to which paragraph (1) applies shall be deemed to be authenticated—

It shall not be necessary in any proceedings in which evidence is to be received under this rule to prove the signature or official position of the person appearing to have given the certificate referred to in paragraph (4).

Nothing in this rule shall prejudice the admission in evidence of any document which is admissible in evidence apart from this rule.

Any request by the family court for the taking or providing of evidence by a court in a State bound by the 2007 Hague Convention for the purposes of proceedings to which that Convention applies, or by a court in another part of the United Kingdom, shall be communicated in writing to the court in question.

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