Insights · Practice

What a defensible timestamp looks like in a deposition

March 2026 · 4 minute read

Any software can print a date on a video. The harder question, the one a deposition is built to expose, is whether that date can be defended.

A defensible timestamp has a provenance. It can be traced back to the original recording rather than typed in or estimated after the fact. Under the authentication standard of Federal Rule of Evidence 901, and the self-authentication route of Federal Rule of Evidence 902(14), what matters is that the date and time are tied to the file the camera actually wrote.

Questions a good timestamp can answer

Opposing counsel will ask where the time came from, whether it could have been changed, and why it should be believed. A timestamp read directly from the original file's embedded capture metadata answers all three. A timestamp keyed in by a person, or copied from a drifting on-screen clock, answers none of them.

The goal is a date and time you can stand behind without flinching, because the record behind it is the camera's own, not a human's best guess.