Problems of the digital evidence usage during the investigation of traffic incidents

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to highlight the problems of using digital evidence during the investigation of traffic accidents by summarizing 54 decisions of Ukrainian courts that considered the problems of admissibility of digital evidence. It has been established that in Ukraine, during the consideration of cases of violations of traffic safety rules in courts of various jurisdictions, certain difficulties arise regarding the recognition of information in digital form as admissible evidence. Under the same conditions, judges make opposite decisions. The analysis of the publications of scientists of Ukraine and the USA showed that investigators, judges, prosecutors, employees of investigative bodies and forensic experts of both countries experience certain difficulties when working with digital evidence due to the rapid development and change of digital device technologies and, as a result, due to changes of detection technologies, extraction, fixation and research of digital information. Therefore, it is recommended to develop appropriate methodical and reference literature and include it in professional development programs separately for each

category of such employees. A comparison of the legislation of Ukraine and the USA regarding the use of digital information in the judiciary showed that the judiciary of the USA has more opportunities for the effective use of digital evidence than the judiciary of Ukraine. It is desirable to supplement the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine with the following changes: definition of the concept of «digital evidence» and its procedural media; a detailed procedure for extracting digital information, its inspection, recording and storage (with a list of mandatory information regarding digital evidence that must be procedurally secured); the procedure for assessing the admissibility and reliability of digital evidence.