por What is a confessional evidence?
A confessional test It is the declaration that a person makes about past events that are not favorable to him and that have to do with his personal performance. Logically, the confessional evidence must deal with the facts and not with the law.
The magistrate should not make any check on the veracity of the confession, except in terms of the legal qualification given by the subject performing the test. If this were not the case, a contradiction would arise, since the magistrate would have to accept even legal consequences that are prohibited in the pertinent regulatory system on the matter.
It can only refer to past events. That is to say, a statement of what is happening at this moment can be considered as an expertise, but in no case as a confessional evidence.
His evidentiary power must be based on personal facts, even if in his statement he does not mention the fact and does so from his knowledge of it. The events that are the object of the confessional evidence must be unfavorable to the declarant.
Object
There are two aspects that we can contemplate with respect to the object of the confessional evidence:
As explained before, you must include events from the past, harmful for the one making the confession and beneficial for the other party. They must be credible acts, acts that are not exempt under the law as a form of confession or controversial acts, since if there is no disagreement between the parties on the matter, the evidence is meaningless.
The law is not considered as the object of the confessional test, except if one tries to prove the existence of a foreign law that is linked to a fact. The right can also be the object of confession if it is to give force to the interpretation of the right provided by the subjects of the contract.
Characteristics of the confessional evidence
– Only party subjects can take the confessional test. However, their ability to be a party has to go hand in hand with procedural capacity; that is, the legal power to enforce their rights. The civil law regulations on capacity and incapacity are applicable.
– Minors do not have the capacity to carry out a confessional test. Their parents or guardians have to do it.
– Those who have reduced abilities (physical to communicate or mental) can do so through healers.
– Minors who are emancipated (regardless of how the emancipation occurs) can take the confessional test with respect to all acts of administration. With regard to acts of disposition, they have the capacity if they are goods acquired free of charge and have the corresponding authorization.
Classification: types of confessional evidence
In general, confessional evidence is divided into the following types:
Judicial
It is done in court and with the required forms before a judge.
Extrajudicial
It is carried out outside the judicial environment.
provoked
When there is a legal requirement that originates it.
spontaneous
When there is no requirement.
express
It is a confession that entails a total and absolute recognition of the respective acts. This type of confessional evidence has binding value before the judge, being irrevocable.
Small cup
When it is deduced from the attitudes of the litigant from whom the evidence is requested: non-appearance, without alleging just cause to the scheduled audience, the refusal to answer categorically or evasive answers. It is not irrevocable.
Simple
When the fact asserted by the opposing party is accepted without objection.
qualified
When, accepting the fact, another dependent fact is added that changes or restricts its scope.
complex
When, recognizing the fact and also adding another fact that modifies or limits its scope, both facts are separable or independent.
Examples of confessional evidence
– One person kills another in a moment of anger. Realizing what he has done, she goes to the nearest police station to give a statement about what happened. It is a confessional evidence of a murder crime.
– The Treasury begins an inspection of a businessman who owns several construction businesses and begins to request documents and justifications of the economic movements carried out in the last 4 years. The businessman gives in to the pressure and, following the advice of his lawyer, makes a confessional test of the crimes of fraud committed.
– A person in charge of the personnel of a company is being investigated by the Ministry of Labor because irregularities in the payments to workers have been reported. The person in charge confesses that the extra hours that the workers did were not reflected in the pay slips and that they were paid in black money without documentation.
Difference between confessional evidence and testimonial evidence
Testimonial evidence is a different act from confessional evidence. The word «testimony» comes from the Latin testis, which means «the one who attends»; that is, the one who helps.
In the case of testimonial evidence, it is the subject who explains what he knows or tells what he has witnessed as a witness, or what he has heard from third parties, without being a party to the trial.
Eyewitnesses have greater credibility than those who have heard something from others. The witness must limit himself to recounting the facts without making assessments or appreciations of a personal nature.
The testimonial evidence differs from the confessional evidence in that the latter is about confessing something that has happened directly to the subject and that harms him in front of third parties.
In the case of testimonial evidence, he gives a testimony of something that he has seen or heard, but it has not happened to him. He has an external role.