§ 60-466 Certificate of lack of record.

When a government office needs to prove that a record does not exist, this rule tells you how to prove that the certificate saying so is real. It points to another rule, K.S.A. 60-465, which explains how official records get authenticated. The same authentication process applies here.

In practical terms, this comes up when someone needs to show a court that a search was done and nothing was found. For example, a court might need proof that no marriage license was filed, or that no criminal record exists for a person. The office that keeps those records can issue a certificate stating they checked and found nothing. This rule says that certificate has to be authenticated the same way any other official record would be, so the court can trust it is genuine and came from the right source.

This matters because it gives people a way to prove a negative in court. Instead of needing a witness to testify that they searched every file by hand, a government office can simply issue a signed certificate. As long as that certificate follows the authentication steps in K.S.A. 60-465, the court will accept it as valid proof that no record exists.