What type of record is considered reliable as a hearsay exception?

Business records are considered reliable as a hearsay exception primarily due to their inherent trustworthiness and the circumstances under which they are created. According to the Federal Rules of Evidence, a business record qualifies as an exception to the hearsay rule if it is made at or near the time of the event recorded, is created by a person with knowledge of the event, is prepared in the regular course of business, and is a regular practice of that business to make such records.

The rationale behind this hearsay exception is that businesses have a strong incentive to create accurate records for their operations. Because these documents are usually generated routinely in the normal course of business, they tend to reflect an accurate account of the transactions or events they document. This reliability is further bolstered by the fact that businesses can be held liable for inaccuracies, which encourages careful documentation.

In contrast, personal diaries, social media posts, and handwritten notes might not meet the criteria for the business records exception. Personal diaries can be subjective and lack the corroborative context present in business records, making them less reliable. Social media posts can be manipulated or lack authenticity, and while they may contain first-hand accounts of events, they do not usually conform to the structured record-keeping that lends business records their reliability