Western Australian Consolidated Acts Western Australian Consolidated Acts (1) If, under a law of
this jurisdiction, a person is required to produce a document that is in the
form of paper, an article or other material, that requirement is taken to have
been met if the person produces, by electronic communication or otherwise, an
electronic form of the document, where —
(a)
having regard to all the relevant circumstances at the time the document was
produced, the method of generating the electronic form of the document
provided a reliable means of assuring the maintenance of the integrity of the
information contained in the document;
(b) at
the time the document was produced, it was reasonable to expect that the
information contained in the electronic form of the document would be readily
accessible then and for subsequent reference; and
(c) the
person to whom the document is required to be produced consents to the
production of an electronic form of the document.
(2) If, under a law of
this jurisdiction, a person is permitted to produce a document that is in the
form of paper, an article or other material, then, instead of producing the
document in that form, the person may produce, by electronic communication or
otherwise, an electronic form of the document, where —
(a)
having regard to all the relevant circumstances at the time the document was
produced, the method of generating the electronic form of the document
provided a reliable means of assuring the maintenance of the integrity of the
information contained in the document;
(b) at
the time the document was produced, it was reasonable to expect that the
information contained in the electronic form of the document would be readily
accessible then and for subsequent reference; and
(c) the
person to whom the document is permitted to be produced consents to the
production of an electronic form of the document.
(3) For the purposes
of this section, the integrity of information contained in a document is
maintained if, and only if, the information has remained complete and
unaltered, apart from —
(a) the
addition of any endorsement; or
(b) any
immaterial change,
which arises in the
normal course of communication, storage or display.
(4) This section does
not affect the operation of any other law of this jurisdiction that makes
provision for or in relation to requiring or permitting electronic forms of
documents to be produced, in accordance with particular information technology
requirements —
(a) on a
particular kind of data storage device; or
(b) by a
particular kind of electronic communication.
Note: Section 12
sets out exemptions from this section.