Abstract

At the time of fast changing provisions of the Telecommunications Law of 16 July 2004, the people not always consciously exercise their rights, including those relating to the freedom and confidentiality of communication. On the other hand, attempts to utilize new technologies by the parties in civil cases are ever more frequent. Those new technologies are closely related with the virtual world of Internet or broadly conceived mobile telephony. The electronic world, including easy and universal access to telecommunications services in a large degree conditions social life of citizens, and correct evidentiary qualification of telecommunications data remains an important issue not only from the viewpoint of legal scholars, but also practicing judges or attorneys. Despite the above, until recently the evidentiary value of data subject to telecommunications confidentiality could have seemed unclear. In the article, the author tries to provide a correct definition of „evidence” in civil procedure, defining its subject and classifying evidence. The article aims at specifying the role of telecommunications confidentiality in the context of national and EU laws, and in consequence to enumerate its elements. Defining the notion of telecommunications data the author considers them in the light of civil evidentiary procedure and makes its thorough assessment. Moreover, the author interprets Art. 309 of the Code of Civil Procedure and thoroughly analyses the thesis of the case law and literature, which allows for drawing a conclusion that telecommunications data remain to be treated as unnamed evidence and that their use in civil proceedings is absolutely possible, though on a much smaller scale than in criminal proceedings.