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Question
In a civil action for damages arising from a dispute over a software supply contract, the plaintiff seeks to admit into evidence a sequence of ephemeral electronic communications—chat messages between the defendant's procurement officer and the software vendor—that were captured from the vendor's cloud messaging logs and printed as a PDF. The messages allegedly contain terms of the agreement and approvals supporting performance. The defendant objects, arguing that ephemeral communications are unreliable and inadequately authenticated, and that the printout is not the original. Under A.M. No. 01-7-01-SC, Rule 11, Sec. 2, answer: (a) whether ephemeral electronic communications may be admitted as documentary evidence and the controlling standard for admissibility; (b) what authentication steps are required to admit the chat messages, including who should testify and what showing is needed to establish authenticity; (c) if the original chat data on the device or vendor platform is not available, what form of secondary evidence is permissible and under what conditions.