Digital Evidence Market Size Workshop

Alexandra Tsvetkova, Director of LIBRe Foundation participated as an expert in the Market Size Workshop within the ‘EVIDENCE - European Informatics Data Exchange Framework for Court and Evidence’ Project.

EVIDENCE is an European project devoted to the use of electronic evidence in solving crimes. In terms of market influence and development, the project is aiming at determining the market size for any technical solution for collecting, preserving, analysing, and presenting electronic evidence, and serving as an important information source for policy makers when deciding on how to promote a common harmonized European approach to evidence collection.

The results of these two tasks, carried within its seventh work-pack, were discussed at the European Market Size Workshop themed ‘Obstacles and Facilitating Factors towards the Digitalisation of Justice: the Specific Issue of Electronic Evidence in Criminal Trial’. The workshop took place in Rome on 10^th and 11^th December 2015.

The workshop was open to stakeholders and end-users (consumer associations as well as legal and forensic associations). It gathered 36 people, representing organizations based in eight European countries (Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom) and several international bodies.

A map of 40 obstacles and 21 facilitating factors for the collection, preservation and exchange of electronic evidence was presented. Experts communicated over the obstacles and open issues on the introduction of ICT and electronic evidence in trials and further continued with panel discussions on facilitating experiences and practices towards their introduction in courts addressing the experience of Austria, Italy and EuroJust.