Bailiffs on the internet and the validity of their certified reports: Lessons learned from the French and Belgian courts

Tim Van Canneyt and Christophe Verdure consider bailiff’s certified reports and the use of judicial experts in France and Belgium. A bailiff can be called upon to report on purely material facts, and they are increasingly being asked to provide evidence adduced from the internet. In this article, consideration is given to the technical issues that a bailiff must consider when obtaining evidence from the internet, and case law is used to illustrate some of the problems that have occurred to date.