Senate Bill No. 134
(By Senators Craigo, Wooton, Jackson and Bowman)
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[Introduced January 25, 1996; referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section one, article one, chapter fifty-seven of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to read-only compact disk copies of legislative journals, acts, resolutions and other documents prepared and certified by the Legislature, to be received in evidence and have same legal effect as original.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section one, article one, chapter fifty-seven of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:

ARTICLE 1. LEGISLATIVE ACTS AND RESOLUTIONS; PUBLIC RECORDS.

§57-1-1. Copies of legislative journals, acts and resolutions.

Copies of the journal of either house of the Legislature, and copies of the acts and resolutions of the Legislature, which have been or shall hereafter be published by authority thereof, shall be received as evidence for any purpose for which the original journal, acts or resolutions could be received and with as much effect. For purposes of this chapter, "copy" or "copies" includes electronic or digitalized copies of legislative journals, acts, resolutions, and other documents published by the Legislature: Provided, That such copies have been prepared and certified by the Legislature as true and accurate copies thereof and have been stored on and retrieved without alteration from a read-only compact disk.

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide that documents published by the Legislature and stored on read-only compact disks may be received into evidence and given the same legal effect as the original.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.