Digital Evidence in Brazil

Brazilian courts have been addressing the admissibility of electronic documents since the first decisions during the mid 1990s. In 2006, the Brazilian Congress addressed the use of electronic documents for the electronic filing of documents and petitions in legal proceedings through a new federal statute, and under the terms of the law, all communications with courts can be made electronically (including the issuing of an electronic summons). All phases of the proceedings can be digitally stored, and most of the documents and petitions can be electronically filed before courts. Digital evidence is regulated by the new legislation in such a way that electronic documents are considered as original documents with the same strength of evidence given to the corresponding paper based document. Some documents cannot be presented exclusively in digital form, such as negotiable instruments, which must be also presented on paper.

Introduction

The Brazilian Congress passed a new statute, Law n. 11.419 on 19 December 2006 (Law n. 11.419 of 2006) that amended the Brazilian Code of Civil Procedure and created the ability to submit the papers relating to legal proceedings to a court in electronic format. Electronic filing is now legal in Brazil for civil, criminal and labour proceedings. Besides allowing the judiciary to implement proceedings in digital format, Law n. 11.419 of 2006 also regulates digital evidence. Law n. 11.419 of 2006 makes it valid for public agencies and for private parties to produce digital evidence with very few requirements.

This article analyzes the aspects of Law n. 11.419 of 2006 that deal with digital evidence. The first part describes the regulation of electronic filing under the terms of Law n. ...

If you are already a vLex customer, Access Here