‘Loose Leaves’
| Date | 01 March 1989 |
| Published date | 01 March 1989 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb027030 |
| Pages | 127-130 |
| Author | Veronica Davies |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
'Loose Leaves'
Veronica Davies
The cost of 'Fax' machines gets lower every year. These machines are
advertised as the technological solution to fast communication between
different organisations and, indeed, it is now unusual to find a business without
such a machine. Facsimile machines allow important documents to be
transmitted and received instantaneously in hard copy without the delays and
vagaries of the postal system or courier. Although hardly much more than
'communicating photocopiers' faxes are of vital interest to the Records
Manager, who should establish a set of procedures for their handling. The
reason for this is twofold.
Firstly the legal implications of the fax are still unclear. For important
contracts the time at which the document is transmitted or received can be of
vital legal significance. Some makes of Fax machines have the ability to store
documents in memory for printing at a later, more convenient, time, while
others offer delayed transmission. These factors alone can be the cause of
dispute and confusion. In one recent example a company instructed its bank by
fax to send immediate proof of a bankers bond to a tender meeting. The
company received automatic confirmation that the request had been received;
however its instructions were stored in the bank's fax machine and only
discovered and actioned a few hours later. As a consequence, no proof of bond
was sent and the tender was not accepted. The legal responsibility for this has
yet to be determined. Was it a sin of ommission, commission or, perhaps we
should ask, of transmission?
Illegibility and the type of thermal paper used by most makes of Fax
machines gives further grounds for litigation. Although the Fax machine itself
is regarded as reliable hardware technology, the telephone lines down which
written messages are sent are subject to both physical and electrical inter-
ference. This interference can cause the document to be misread or can result in
a poor copy emerging at the receiving fax machine. If the received message is
transmitted onwards, it is common for handwritten corrections to be inserted at
the intermediate stage so that the final recipient will at least be able to read what
is sent. At present, however, hand corrections made at the intermediate stage
are unacceptable in the case of legal documentation. In other words, either you
get an unreadable but legally valid fax, or a legible but invalid one.
Machines are available on the market that print a confirmation stamp on
every sheet of the original document as it is read and confirmed by the receiving
terminal. In addition, these machines can provide comprehensive transmission
information on received documents. This can include: date, time, sender's fax
number etc. Pages can also be numbered with, on the last page, the total
number of pages detailed. Logging systems are also available whereby either on
request or after a certain number of transmissions details of all incoming and
outgoing documents, destination codes, and cost can all be printed out. Whilst
the legal position of information despatched by telex — the nearest comparable
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