Short answer. Yes. Section 28 of Rule 132 makes a written statement, signed by the officer with custody of an official record or that officer's deputy, that after diligent search no record of a specified tenor exists, admissible as evidence of that absence — provided it comes with the same custody certificate required for other official records.
What the law says
no record or entry of a specified tenor is found to exist in the records of his or her office, accompanied by a certificate as above provided, is admissible as evidence that the records of his or her office contain no such record or entry
Rule 132, Section 28 — Proof of lack of record. Read the full provision →
The problem of proving a negative
Proving that something does not exist in a set of records is awkward under ordinary evidence rules, which are built around proving that documents or events did happen, not that a search turned up nothing. Section 28 solves this directly for official records: it lets the custodian's own written statement about the absence of a record stand as evidence of that absence, rather than requiring some other, more roundabout way of proving a negative.
What the statement has to say and who has to sign it
The statement must come from the officer having the custody of an official record, or that officer's deputy, and it must say that after diligent search, no record or entry of a specified tenor was found. The phrase "of a specified tenor" matters — the statement has to identify what kind of record was searched for, such as a marriage record for a named couple, not a vague assertion that nothing relevant turned up anywhere in the office.
Why 'diligent search' is a real requirement, not boilerplate
A certificate that simply asserts no record exists, without the search behind it actually having been diligent, does not automatically satisfy this section just because it uses the right words. If the thoroughness of the search is challenged, the officer or deputy who signed the statement may need to explain what the search actually involved — which indices were checked, which years or registers were covered — before the court gives the certificate its intended evidentiary weight.
It still needs the same accompanying certificate
Section 28 explicitly ties itself to the certificate requirement described for proving official records generally — the no-record statement must be accompanied by a certificate as above provided. That means a party relying on a no-record certificate from a registry cannot treat it as a stand-alone document; it needs the same custody certification that would otherwise be required to authenticate a record from that same office.
Related provisions
- Rule 132, Section 28 — Proof of lack of record
- Rule 132, Section 27 — Public record of a private document
- Rule 132, Section 24 — Proof of official record