Rule 27 Proof of Official Record

Here's a plain English summary of this rule:

This rule covers how you prove that an official record exists (or doesn't exist) in a criminal case. Maybe you need to show that someone has a prior conviction, or that a document was properly filed with a government office, or that no record of something exists at all. This rule says you don't need special criminal court procedures to do this.

Instead, you use the same methods already set up for civil cases. If the civil rules allow a certified copy of a record, or testimony from a records custodian, or some other accepted method to prove a record exists or is missing, those same methods work in a criminal case too.

The point is to keep things simple and consistent. Courts already have established ways to verify official records in civil lawsuits, so criminal cases can rely on those same proven methods instead of creating separate rules.