Rule 44. Proof of official record. - North Carolina Statutes

Rule 44. Proof of officialrecord.

(a)        Authentication ofcopy. – An official record or an entry therein, when admissible for anypurpose, may be evidence by an  official publication thereof or by a copyattested by the officer having the legal custody of the record, or by hisdeputy, and accompanied with a certificate that such officer has the custody.If the office in which the record is kept is without the State of NorthCarolina but within the United States or within a territory or insularpossession subject to the dominion of the United States, the certificate may bemade by a judge of a court of record of the political subdivision in which therecord is kept, authenticated by the seal of the court, or may be made by anypublic officer having a seal of office and having official duties in thepolitical subdivision in which the record is kept, authenticated by the seal ofhis office. If the office in which the record is kept is in a foreign state orcountry, the certificate may be made by a secretary of embassy or legation,consul general, consul, vice‑consul, or consular agent or by any officerin the foreign service of the United States stationed in the foreign state orcountry in which the record is kept, and authenticated by the seal of hisoffice.

(b)        Proof of lack ofrecord. – A written statement signed by an officer having the custody of anofficial record or by his deputy that after diligent search no record or entryof a specified tenor is found to exist in the records of his office,accompanied by a certificate as above provided, is admissible as evidence thatthe records of his office contain no such record or entry.

(c)        Other proof. – Thisrule does not prevent the proof of official records specified in Title 28,U.S.C. §§ 1738 and 1739 in the manner therein provided; nor of entry or lack ofentry in official records by any method authorized by any other applicablestatute or by the rules of evidence at common law. (1967, c. 954, s. 1.)