WEST VIRGINIA CODE
WVC 57-1-7b
§57-1-7b. Use of photographic copies in evidence -- Business and
public records; destruction of originals.
If any business, institution, member of a profession or
calling, or any officer of a local governmental agency, including
county officers, county boards of education and municipalities, in
the regular course of business or activity has kept or recorded any
memorandum, writing, entry, print, representation or combination
thereof, of any act, transaction, occurrence or event, and in the
regular course of business has caused any or all of the same to be
recorded, copied or reproduced by any photographic, photostatic,
microfilm, microcard, miniature photographic, or other process
which accurately reproduces or forms a durable medium for so
reproducing the original, the original may be destroyed in the
regular course of business unless held in a custodial or fiduciary
capacity or unless its preservation is required by law:
Provided,
however, That destruction of records of local governmental agencies
shall also be contingent upon the approval by those agencies of
such disposition. Such reproduction, when satisfactorily
identified, is as admissible in evidence as the original itself in
any judicial or administrative proceeding whether the original is
in existence or not, and an enlargement or facsimile of such
reproduction is likewise admissible in evidence if the original
reproduction is in existence and available for inspection under
direction of court. The introduction of a reproduced record,
enlargement of facsimile, does not preclude admission of the
original.
Note: WV Code updated with legislation passed through the 2012 1st Special Session