Electronic evidence in civil matters other than minor civil disputes
You may need to file electronic evidence in your case. QCAT will accept audio, video and photographs that are on a USB storage device. The USB storage device must be accompanied with a signed electronic evidence declaration available here. For more information about the requirements for filing audio, video and photographs, see Practice Direction No. 11 of 2020.
The USB storage device will be accepted if it is provided in one of the following file formats:
Electronic evidence formats
| Container formats | 3GP,[a] ASF, AVI, DVR-MS, FLV, Matroska (MKV), MIDI,[b] QuickTime File Format, MP4, Ogg, OGM, WAV, MPEG-2 (ES, PS, TS, PVA, MP3), AIFF, Raw audio, Raw DV, MXF, VOB, RM, Blu-ray, DVD-Video, VCD, SVCD, CD Audio, DVB, HEIF, AVIF |
| Audio coding formats | AAC, AC3, ALAC, AMR,[a] DTS, DV Audio, XM, FLAC, It, MACE, MOD, Monkey’s Audio, MP3, Opus,[87] PLS, QCP, QDM2/QDMC, RealAudio,[c] Speex, Screamtracker 3/S3M, TTA, Vorbis, WavPack,[d] WMA (WMA 1/2, WMA 3 partially)[88] |
| Digital Camcorder formats | MOD and TOD via USB |
| Photograph formats | PDN, PNG, JPG, JPEG, JPE, JFIF, EXIF, JXR, WDP, WMP, BMP, DIB, RLE, GIF, TGA, DDS, TIF, TIFF, WEBP |
Children and other special witnesses
QCAT may make special arrangements for a witness who is a child or a person who QCAT considers would be likely to:
- be disadvantaged because of their mental, intellectual or physical impairment or a relevant matter
- suffer severe emotional trauma; or
- be disadvantaged because they are intimidated
Special arrangements QCAT can make for children and special witnesses
QCAT may allow the following in relation to children and other special witnesses:
- that only particular persons may be present when the special witness gives evidence
- that only particular persons may ask questions of the special witness
- that the questioning of the special witness must be restricted to a stated time limit
- that a particular person must be obscured from the view of the special witness while the special witness is giving evidence
- that a particular person must be excluded from the place where the hearing is held while the special witness is giving evidence
- that the special witness must give evidence in a place other than where the hearing is held and in the presence of only stated persons or with stated persons being excluded from the room
- that a person, including, for example, a support person under section 91, must be present while the special witness is giving evidence to give emotional support to the special witness
- that an audio visual record of the evidence given by the special witness be made and that the record be viewed and heard at the hearing instead of the special witness giving direct testimony at the hearing
*Disclaimer – The above information was taken from the Queensland Civil & Administrative website as accurate in January 2023. If any changes are made by the court from that date they may not be reflected in this post
