The popularity that WhatsApp has achieved in a large number of countries is such that, in many cases, it has come to replace professional communication tools: such as email. However, Justice does not always take into account the conversations to issue a sentence in the case of judicial proceedings.
The instant nature of WhatsApp has been one of the keys that has allowed this tool to be positioned beyond personal use. In many companies, this channel is used to carry out all types of professional communications that have to do with schedule changes, new regulations implemented by the company or any other aspect of a similar nature. A scenario that makes it essential, furthermore, when it comes to arguing or questioning the nature of a dismissal or separation.
This has been precisely the situation that the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid has found itself. That it has had to analyze the nature of the dismissal of a company once different WhatsApp screenshots have been presented in the appeal that, a priori, could be considered valid. But, finally, the court has decided to reject them, as reported by Confilegal.
They are not a clever document
The court has been clear in this regard, the WhatsApp screenshots “ cannot have the character of a valid document for the purposes of supplications .” One of the reasons that explain this decision is due to the need to verify and authenticate the evidence. Which, due to the very nature of the app, is very easy to artificially alter so that it seems practically imperceptible to the human eye.
Authentication, as stated in the same medium previously cited, must be carried out through “ accessories or instruments, such as witnesses or transcriptions in a notarial act .” A scenario that makes such action very difficult. And that makes WhatsApp, in some situations, a completely dispensable tool when it comes to providing this type of evidence in court.
The problem of digital communications
Despite the situation described, it is worth knowing that in other legal disputes, WhatsApp has been accepted as evidence to be able to make a decision regarding a specific case. However, the contexts in which this app has been taken into account to render a verdict have been, in most cases, in all those in which this tool had been the only way to prove an employment relationship. or when there has been no subject who has questioned the authorship or authenticity. However, when there have been doubts about it, the difficulty of taking this app as valid evidence has grown considerably. Furthermore, also when any of the parties involved have recognized the screenshots in question.
The ruling of the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid once again makes visible the problems that exist around digital communications when it comes to taking them into account in legal conflicts. Even more so if reference is made to appeals. Although WhatsApp continues to increase its majority of users and the number of areas in which it has an impact is increasing, the reality is that email continues to be the most appropriate way to build any type of communication that has to do purely with the professional environment.
