§ 8.01-390.Nonjudicial records as evidence (Subdivision (10)(a) of Supreme Court Rule 2:803 derived from subsection C of this section).

Not every government record sits in a courthouse. Agencies, boards, and departments keep their own files, and Section 8.01-390 gives those records a path into evidence that parallels the one Section 8.01-389 gives to court records. A copy of a record kept by Virginia, another state, another country, the United States, or any of their political subdivisions or agencies — outside a court clerk’s office — counts as prima facie evidence once it is authenticated as a true copy by the custodian or by whoever the custodian reports to, if that is a different person.

The section keeps pace with digital government. A digitally certified copy provided under Virginia’s digital signature framework in Chapter 38.2 of Title 2.2 is treated as authenticated by the record’s custodian without more, whether it is delivered electronically or printed out with a visible mark of the digital signature — unless someone comes forward with evidence to the contrary.

911 call records and recordings get a specific rule built for how emergency dispatch works: they count as authentic transcriptions or recordings of the original statements as long as they come with a certificate meeting the general authentication standard and that certificate states the date and time of the incoming call, along with the caller’s phone number if it was available.

The section also covers the flip side — proving a record does not exist. An affidavit from the officer who has custody of a record, or that officer’s deputy, stating that a diligent search turned up no record or entry, is itself admissible as evidence that the office has no such record.