At present, a great majority of relationships, both personal, professional and commercial, are developed by electronic means, what the law knows as “telematic means”; media, which can range from a WhatsApp message and other similar applications, through messaging on other social networks, to formal emails in the field of business; among other means.

Many times, the evidence of such relationships is only supported in our telephones, emails, computers and digital files; that is to say, said information is not supported in a material and physical element (say a piece of paper) but in information systems, in a “dematerialized” way.

The law requires a specific procedure to give procedural validity to these electronic media. For your digital information to be valid before public authorities, you must do the following:

• Step 1:Collect and locate all the information that you consider relevant to what you need to prove.
• Step 2:Bring that information to the knowledge of your trusted lawyer, so that he, from a technical point of view, decides that it is useful for his strategy and that it should be discarded.
• Step 3: Once the pertinent information has been selected, you must visit any Authorized Public Notary, from any canton, and request the procedure called "Materialization of electronic document”; The notary and his collaborators will guide you in each step, you do not need a lawyer for this procedure.
• Step 4:  The notary will review the digital source of the information (your email, your laptop, your cell phone) and will verify that the information is real and reliable and will issue the certification in a physical and materialized manner; the process is quick, simple and inexpensive ($ 1.50 per page, approximately).

With the document certified by a notary public, it can be used to prove any fact, before any authority.

If you need us to recommend a notary we trust, write to our email, info@garciayasociados.ec ; At no cost, we will put you in contact with said notary, we will give you their location and telephone information and we will recommend you, so that your request is attended to as quickly as possible.

Fabrizio García Bacigalupo