PARTY STATEMENTS: A NEW MEANS OF EVIDENCE IN SUPPORT OF EQUALITY OF ARMS IN CIVIL CASES?

Abstract

In this work, we will try to analyse the legal regime of party statements (declarações de parte), one of the two new means of evidence that have been right-fenced in the new Portuguese Civil Procedure Code of 2013 (NCPC), more specifically in its article 466. With this task, we wish to try to verify whether this new means of evidence respects, in any civil case, the principle of equity of arms or if, in some cases, the own deponent is disadvantaged in relation with the opposing party with its use. We will see that, despite the goodness of their introduction as a means of autonomous proof in the new code, there are two cases in which equality of arms is not completely respected by party statements. They are: 1- the lawsuits of extra-contractual civil liability for traffic accidents without witnesses in which the plaintiff is the injured and the defendant is the insurance company of the only vehiche responsible for the event and 2- any lawsuit in which party statements and testimony are required by and against one of the parties, whereas the counterpart only makes statements.