Can online emojis become "testimony in court"?
Emojis have been written into the judgment lawyer: it is difficult to be direct evidence for a verdict, but reasonable doubts must be ruled out
In daily life, everyone uses emoticons extensively in online chats.
But every expression you post may become a "testimony in court."
A reporter from Beijing Youth Daily noticed from the China Judgment Documents website that emojis have already appeared in court judgments in many places. There are not only civil cases but also criminal cases. They have become an auxiliary evidence in the judgment or characterization of the case.
However, experts also said that in view of the ambiguity of the meaning of emoticons, how to interpret and determine the meaning of online emoticons has indeed become a challenge faced by judicial officials in the Internet age.
A number of practicing lawyers told the Beijing Youth Daily that in legal practice, WeChat chat records can be used as evidence, but whether online emoticons can be used as "testimony in court" depends on the specific case and the specific circumstances of the case.
Especially in criminal cases, reasonable suspicion must be ruled out.
Case study
Emojis are used by criminals as "accounting symbols"
In the Civil Judgment of Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court of Guangdong Province (2019) Yue 03 Min Zhong 24500, a judgment was made on a contract dispute involving WeChat emojis.
As the creator, Lu Hong sent the lyrics of his creation to Tian Min, the legal representative of Shenzhen Daoyi Film Group Co., Ltd. on April 24, 2018.
After Tian Min stated that he was on the road, he sent the WeChat emoji [强].
In the end, the judgment determined: "Combining the content of the chats between the two parties before and after, the court of first instance held that the WeChat emoji was not an endorsement of Lu Hong's lyrics, but a polite reply, and could not be used as a basis for the lyrics delivered by Lu Hong to comply with the contract. ."
In the judgment of another private lending case, the lender Zhang Huifeng sent a WeChat account to the borrower Yan Hao, listing the latter’s loan details.
Yan Hao responded with an emoji "OK".
This emoji in Zhang Huifeng's eyes means approval, but Yan Hao said: This "OK" does not recognize Zhang Huifeng's WeChat content.
The Taihe County People's Court of Anhui Province (2020) Wan 1222 Min Chu No. 3487 Judgment held that: The WeChat record submitted by Zhang Huifeng was not clearly approved by Yan Hao, and therefore the WeChat content cannot be used as the basis for the latter's debt to Zhang Huifeng for the corresponding amount.
Compared with the WeChat emoticons in the above two judgments, the meanings of other emoticons are more ambiguous.
For example, in the judgment of a housing leasing dispute, after the lease term expires, the lessee has repeatedly reminded the lessor and raised the willingness to increase the rent. It does not mean that he will continue to rent or move away from the property involved in the case. It just replied. The "sun" emoji.
From the lessor’s point of view, this "sun" emoji signifies recognition of rent increases.
However, the lessee believes that this determination has no factual and legal basis.
The Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court of Guangdong Province finally supported the lessor and held that it should be determined that the lessee agreed to continue the lease in accordance with the rent increase standard.
At the same time, it is judged that the lessee shall bear the corresponding house occupation and use fees after the lease term expires.
Not only civil judgments, but also emojis appeared in judicial documents in some criminal cases.
The Intermediate Court of Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province (2020) Zhejiang 01 Xing Zhong No. 386 "Zhu Zhixiang, Deng Hongwei, Peng Fen and Others Organized Prostitution Crimes of the Second Instance Criminal Ruling" stated: "Liu and others have repeatedly sent Zhu Zhixiang to Zhu Zhixiang after prostitution activities. 'S WeChat account sends emoticons such as smiles for reimbursement."
dispute
The meaning of emoji is ambiguous and specific identification faces challenges
As a scholar of online emoticons, Hu Ling, Associate Professor and Associate Dean of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, pointed out in an interview with the media that with the popularity of instant messaging software, people are increasingly using online emoticons to express their attitudes. Emojis also appear more and more frequently in court as evidence.
Hu Ling said that in most cases in China, online emoticons usually only appear as supporting evidence, and do not play a decisive role.
However, given the ambiguity of the meaning of emoticons, how to interpret and determine the meaning of online emoticons has indeed become a challenge faced by judicial officials in the Internet age.
Attorney Ge Shuchun, a member of the Chinese Law Society, told the Beijing Youth Daily that in specific legal practice, whether online emojis can be used as "testimony in court" depends on the specific case and the specific circumstances of the case.
Take WeChat as an example. Modern society lives at a fast pace. Many people often don’t look carefully after receiving each other’s messages, but out of courtesy they respond with an online emoticon. Once a dispute arises between the two parties, one party will come up with a chat with an online emoticon. The record as the core evidence is obviously inappropriate.
However, cross-examination of evidence is the right of both parties. One party uses chat records with online emoticons as evidence to provide evidence, while the other denies it. At this time, the party that uses online emoticons as evidence should use other evidence to support the claim. The truthfulness of the facts, otherwise it is difficult to be called direct evidence for the verdict.
The Taihe County People’s Court of Anhui Province found that the WeChat record submitted by Zhang Huifeng was not clearly approved by Yan Hao as the best explanation.
in accordance with
It’s difficult to decide directly on the basis of online emoticons alone
Ge Shuchun said that it is impossible to directly finalize the case based on online expressions alone.
In practice, if one party uses chat records with online emoticons to prove evidence or even just sue the defendant, then without other evidence or other chat records to corroborate the case, the judges cannot decide the case based on online emoticons alone, otherwise they will It gives people a kind of "subjective and presumptive" behavior among the judges, and even suspects that they can judge the case by guessing.
Of course, in some major criminal cases, it is not ruled out that the use of ciphers, codewords or network expressions as connections or criminal activities is not ruled out, but in the process of handling criminal cases, the facts of conviction and sentencing must be proved by a chain of evidence and conviction The evidence must be verified by legal procedures, and the comprehensive evidence of the whole case has excluded reasonable doubts about the facts ascertained.
Obviously, a decision cannot be made directly based on online emoticons alone.
Deng Qianqiu, a lawyer from Beijing Zhongwen Law Firm, believes that, under normal circumstances, emojis need to be combined with verbal expressions to draw a clear conclusion. Whether or not a certain emoji constitutes a definite meaning expression needs to be combined with the client’s sending emojis The specific situation, social conventions, and communication habits between parties should be cautiously judged from the cognitive standpoint of ordinary people.
Xu Hao, a lawyer at Beijing Jingshi Law Firm, told Beijing Youth Daily that in judicial practice, WeChat chat records can be used as evidence.
WeChat emoticons are used as part of WeChat chat records, rather than used independently. After completing the specific chat records, put them in the specific chat context for identification.
According to the "Civil Procedure Law", evidence includes electronic data.
Evidence must be verified to be true before it can be used as a basis for ascertaining facts.
There are three important points in WeChat chat records as evidence. First, it depends on whether the evidence presented by the party is the original. If it is only a screenshot or photo of the WeChat chat record, if the other party does not approve it, if there is no other supporting evidence. The authenticity is missing.
Second, determine whether the two parties in the chat record, especially the identity of the other party, are the other party.
This process does not take it for granted, such as whether the WeChat ID is clearly in the relevant documents; whether the WeChat ID has undergone real-name authentication, whether the WeChat ID is bound to a real-name certified mobile phone number, and so on.
Again, it depends on the content of the chat log, and it depends on whether the chat log is formed or obtained legally.
This group of articles / our reporter Zhu Jianyong coordinated / Bai Long
Photo courtesy/Visual China
Suggest
Precedent directives in judicial practice make emoticons "categorized"
Shen Teng, a part-time professor of China University of Political Science and Law, and a lawyer from Beijing Shuaihe Law Firm, told the Beijing Youth Daily that the original emojis were pan-entertainment things, which played a certain role in the chat atmosphere.
But with the deepening of the functions of emoticons, emoticons are not only entertaining when users include emotions and meanings. Emoticons have become a kind of recognition, abandonment, change, neutrality and other evaluation aspects for people to express their hearts. The meaning of said that he has participated in the language exchange.
As part of language communication, included in civil disputes, and even in criminal offenses, as part of evidence, this emoji pack also carries a kind of motivation, subjectivity, characteristic, etc.
Shen Teng said that emoji is not a language after all, it is a kind of cultural creation of language, and the cultural nature is relatively obvious. Only through the cultural nature can we understand its meaning.
The proportions of culturality and (meaning) sex are also very different, so we have different criteria for judging it.
Now there is no uniform standard for emoticons, which requires constant precedent instructions in judicial practice to allow emoticons to express the exact meaning in a categorized or individualized manner.