Russians have become more likely to bring online evidence to court. We are talking about any content from the Internet — video, audio, and even instant messenger messages. The trend is confirmed by the statistics of the Federal Notary Chamber. According to her data, in the first quarter of 2023, lawyers certified data from the network about 100 times a day. Residents of Moscow, St. Petersburg, the Sverdlovsk Region and the Krasnodar Territory were the most active in applying for the service.
Russians began to use Internet content more often to defend their position in the courts a few years ago. This tool works something like this: suppose a consumer has ordered a certain service through a marketplace, for example, shoe repair. The performer kept in touch with him through messengers. As a result, he ruined the wardrobe item, but refused to admit the mistake, as well as compensate for the damage.
If the customer is going to protect the rights, he cannot do without screenshots of the correspondence. You can provide them yourself, but faith in such evidence will not always be complete, photos can be forged. The only way out is to have the materials notarized. The demand for such a service has tripled in 2022.
Naturally, there are more cases where you can't do without screenshots, says Evgenia Ryzhkova, a Attorney at Law of the Yakovlev and Partners Law Group:
"Demand has started to grow due to an increase in the number of crimes and administrative offenses related to the Internet. This is both slander and discredit. In addition, people's civic engagement on social media is also growing. Now, in order to confirm that you have agreed on something with a person, you need to show the messages from the messenger, and the judges do not really like to review the correspondence in court".