E-mail as Evidence in Labour Litigation − Data Protection and Procedural Concerns

Abstract

Due to technological developments in recent years and decades, an increasing number of e-mails and other electronic messages have appeared among the means of evidence submitted during labour lawsuit proceedings, which in the vast majority of cases are accepted and evaluated by the courts without question. However, most people (including the judges) are unlikely to be aware that there is a high chance that these documents are in themselves constituting infringing evidence from both a procedural and a data protection point of view. The study seeks to answer the question of whether, nevertheles there is a way to legally take these documents into account in litigation.