Company correspondence as evidence in litigation, part 1

Many former employees almost certainly wonder whether they can use business correspondence from the time of their employment in court proceedings against their former employer and whether such use of correspondence could create any risk for them.

The basic principle of civil proceedings is the obligation of the parties to present evidence, which confirms the position presented by them in a manner which does not give rise to any doubts. It is the parties and not the court that are the sole proprietors of the pending legal proceedings and it is they who bear the responsibility for its outcome, including the failure to present appropriate evidence in the proceedings. One of the means of providing evidence may be company e-mail correspondence.

E-mail correspondence, or rather printouts of e-mail messages, is considered in civil proceedings as “other evidence” in the meaning of Article 309 of the Civil Procedures Code (judgement of the Supreme Court of 5 November 2008, I CSK 138/08). Similarly, when it is possible to present circumstances of importance to the employee with the use of e-mail correspondence in litigation against the employer, the employee should present this correspondence.