Erin Brokovich: Offering a Duplicate Original as Best Evidence

The Best Evidence Rule is invoked when the subject of inquiry involves the contents of a
document, and which requires the production of the original document whose contents are
desired to be proved. This rule is intended to prevent tampering and to eliminate the risk of
mistranscriptions.

Under the Best Evidence Rule, no other evidence is admissible other than the original
document itself. Hence, on matters of duplicate originals, the court has to distinguish an original
document depending on the intention of the parties and to controlling legal problems.

When the received copy of P&G was used by Erin Brokovich and Atty. Ed to prove the
notice and actual knowledge of P&G regarding the contamination of water, the copy was
admitted in court as the best evidence to impute damages suffered by a community in Hinckley.
The received copy is accorded as the original document, because the contents of the document
proved the allegation that P&G has deliberately sacrificed the well-being of the people at the
expense of commercial gains. The contents in the received copy revealed that P&G was
informed of the detrimental effects of chemicals to the sustainability of the environment, but
P&G ignored the matter. Their malicious conduct, thus, lead the jury to impose the 333 million
dollars to compensate the damages suffered by 600 plaintiffs.