A San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has reportedly ruled that Google Earth's GPS coordinates in respect of the location of the device user is not hearsay and is admissable evidence. Instead, admissability should be determined on the basis of the rules of authentication, considering reliability and accuracy.
Although this is a U.S. decision, there is a good prospect a Canadian Court would make a similar determination. Many provinces have electronic records provisions in their Evidence Acts. B.C. does not have express provisions but some records could be admitted as a business record under the B.C. Evidence Act. See also this article "The Uniform Electronic Evidence Act Revisited" in Slaw by John Gregory.
In the Paciano Lizarraga-Tirado case, the defendant claimed he was on the Mexican side of the border when he was arrested by Border Patrol agents for illegal re-entry into the United States. An arresting agent recorded the coordinates of the arrest with a GPS device. Prosecutors introduced electronic evidence of the location by entering the GPS coordinates into Google Earth, creating a digital tack on Google Earth's satellite image north of the border. The defendant raised a hearsay objection, which was rejected, but did not raise any objection to the authenticity of GPS coordinates or Google Earth program.
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