Can electronic evidence be used as direct evidence?

Text messages, emails and web pages are all electronic evidence. It is understood that the electronic evidence that can be presented in court mainly includes: SMS, e-mail, web evidence and so on. , eliminate human tampering, errors and failures and other factors. Electronic evidence is the most probative of all evidence, which is convenient to save and rich in performance. It can be preserved for a long time and reused at any time. At the same time, electronic evidence is easily destroyed. Because electronic data exists in the form of "bits" and is discontinuous, it is difficult to find and judge if there is no comparable copy or image file after the data has been tampered with artificially. As for misoperation, virus, software and hardware failure, system crash, sudden power failure and other factors outside the will will also lead to data distortion. Lawyers said that as long as it is litigation evidence, it should have three basic characteristics, namely objectivity, relevance and legitimacy. Only evidence with the above three attributes can be said to have evidence qualification, that is, evidence ability. Lawyers who notarized, photographed and downloaded the saved web evidence said that the mobile phone text messages that met the requirements of "three characteristics" of evidence after court review could be used as the basis for finalizing the case. However, due to the characteristics of deletion and modification of mobile phone short messages, it is generally not suitable to be used as the basis for determining the facts of a case alone, but should be supplemented by other evidence. In order to avoid the lack of evidential ability in citing evidence, we should pay attention to the following situations when reviewing mobile phone short messages: (1) Review the sender and recipient (name and mobile phone number) and the time of sending and receiving; The relationship between the sender, the recipient and the parties to the case; (2) Check whether the location of the short message has changed and whether the sent (received) information is still in the send (received) box; (3) Check whether the content of the short message is complete, whether it contradicts other evidence, and whether it is related to the facts to be proved; (4) If necessary, you can apply to the telecom operator for certification or investigation. The factors that can be used to judge the authenticity of e-mail include: (1) comparing e-mail with other evidence, and asking relevant personnel to confront it if necessary; (2) Check whether the e-mail address is obtained from an Internet service provider or registered for free. Generally speaking, the former is more reliable; (3) Check the sending and receiving time of the mail. If the mail is sent by a foreign network service provider or an international mail sender, it must take a certain time, otherwise it is not in line with the objective situation; (4) When necessary, ask the Internet service provider to provide assistance and directly save the evidence from the transmission and storage of e-mail. Or whether it has been tampered with or not from the reliability of the e-mail generation, storage and transmission environment. , please put forward expert opinions. Regarding how to enhance the authenticity of online evidence, Mr. Zhang said that both parties to the lawsuit have disputes about the authenticity of online evidence, which is the main evidence to find out the facts of the case. Upon the application of the parties concerned, you can ask the relevant websites to provide assistance and directly save the evidence transmitted and stored by the computer system, or ask experts from relevant units to conduct appraisal and give expert opinions on the generation, storage, transmission and reliability of the output environment of network evidence. Due to the fast updating and timeliness of webpage information, attention should be paid to preserving webpage evidence in litigation, and webpages can be fixed by notarization, video recording and downloading. Generally speaking, notarized web page evidence has strong probative power. How to present electronic evidence in court should be presented in court by mobile phone short message, and relevant information such as the content of short message, sender (receiver), sending (receiver) time, storage place and so on should be extracted in writing as part of the court record. The evidential party may also voluntarily apply for short message notarization and present notarized documents as evidence. E-mail should be provided by the proof party, including the sender, the recipient and the mail provider, the relationship between the above-mentioned personnel and the parties to the case, the time and content of the email. When presenting evidence in court, if both parties have no objection, they can directly present a paper copy of the e-mail; Otherwise, it will be demonstrated in court on the computer, downloaded and printed into paper. If the e-mail is notarized, it may not be presented in court, but the notarized document may be presented directly as evidence. When presenting the webpage as evidence, the evidential party shall provide the website and time, and demonstrate the webpage in court, indicating the contents related to the case in the webpage. At the same time, provide a paper copy of the webpage for future reference. With the consent of both parties, it is also possible to display only the paper version of the webpage without demonstrating the webpage. The above process should be fully reflected in the trial transcript. If the webpage has been notarized, the webpage may not be demonstrated in court, but the notarized document may be directly presented as evidence. Computers and networks have entered our lives, and many businesses also need to rely on the network. Therefore, in the case of disputes, electronic evidence can play a key role in the process of resolving contradictions. However, citizens generally have no awareness of retaining evidence, and few people realize it in daily life. Finally, Mr. Zhang reminds everyone that evidence must be preserved in time in daily life to prevent the first-hand information of electronic evidence from being lost, which makes it difficult to obtain evidence.

Legal objectivity:

The evidence in Article 63 of the Civil Procedure Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) includes: (1) the statement of the parties; (2) Documentary evidence; (3) Physical evidence; (4) Audio-visual materials; (5) Electronic data; (6) Testimony of witnesses; (7) Appraisal opinions; (8) Records of the inquest. Evidence must be verified before it can be used as a basis for ascertaining facts.