CONFESSIONAL PROOF: CHARACTERISTICS, EXAMPLES - ARTE - 2026

A confessional test is the statement that a person makes about past events that are not favorable to him and that have to do with his personal performance. Logically, confessional evidence must deal with the facts and not with the law.

The magistrate should not make any verification about the veracity of the confession, except in terms of the legal qualification granted by the subject taking the test. If this were not the case, there would be a contradiction, since the magistrate would have to accept even prohibited legal consequences in the relevant regulatory system on the matter.

It can only refer to past events. That is, a statement of what is happening at this time can be viewed as an expertise, but in no case as a confessional evidence.

Your evidentiary power must be based on personal facts, even if your statement does not speak of the fact and does so from your knowledge of it. The events object of the confessional test must be unfavorable to the declarant.

Object

There are two aspects that we can contemplate with respect to the object of confessional evidence:

-As explained before, you must understand events in the past, harmful to the person making the confession and beneficial to the other party. They must be credible acts, acts that are not exempted by 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 raised as an object of confessional evidence, except if it is attempted 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 enforce the interpretation of the right provided by the parties to contract.

characteristics

- Only party subjects can perform the confessional test. However, their ability to be a party has to go hand in hand with their procedural capacity; that is, the legal power to enforce their rights. Civil law regulations on capacity and disability are applicable.

- Minors do not have the capacity to carry out a confessional test. They have to be their parents or guardians.

-Those who have diminished capacities (physical to communicate or mental) can do so through healers.

-The minors who are in a situation of emancipation (regardless of how the emancipation occurs) can take the confessional test with respect to all acts of administration. Regarding disposition acts, they have the capacity if they are goods acquired free of charge and they have the corresponding authorization.

Classification

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 done outside the judicial environment.

Provoked

When there is a judicial 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 proof is requested: failure to appear, without alleging just cause to the scheduled hearing, the refusal to answer categorically or evasive answers. It is not irrevocable.

Simple

When the fact claimed by the opposing party is accepted without objection.

Qualified

When, accepting the fact, another is added a dependent fact 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

-One person kills another in a moment of anger. Realizing what she has done, she goes to the nearest police station to give a statement about what happened. It is confessional evidence of a murder crime.

-Hacienda begins an inspection of a businessman who owns several construction businesses and begins to request documents and justifications of the economic movements made in the last 4 years. The businessman gives in to the pressure and, following the advice of his lawyer, performs 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 payments to workers have been reported. The person in charge confesses that the overtime that the workers did were not reflected in the payroll 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 more credibility than those who have heard something from others. The witness must limit himself to recounting the events without making assessments or personal assessments.

Testimonial evidence differs from 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, you are giving a testimony of something that you have seen or heard but have not happened. It has an external role.

References

1. Isaura Arguelles. Release of confessional evidence. Autonomous University of the State of Hidalgo.
2. Hilda (2008) Confessional evidence. Law.laguia2000.com
3. Daniel Poot (2017) The confessional test. degreeceroprensa.wordpress.com
4. Confessional evidence. Confessional.blogspot.com
5. School of litigants (2016) Confessional evidence. ecueladelitigantes.com