I believe that the last thing every litigator would like to experience is realising that the client does not have the necessary documents to support their stance in a dispute. This not necessarily happened because the client deliberately not keeping any documents pertaining the dispute, but can also be caused by lack of knowledge from the client of what document that should be kept. For example, in any business contract, it is pivotal that respective party has the agreement (contract document) and also all of the documents that entails.

Therefore, regardless how friendly a contract negotiation can go or how smooth the execution of the contract can be, respective parties must maintain the “what if”’ mindset throughout the process. We need to remember that the contract is made as a rule of the game and sometime the flow of the game is not as we expected in the beginning. This is where the litigation process may enter into the picture to settle the difference between the parties.

In general, the Indonesia civil procedural laws acknowledge several types of evidence that a party can put forward in a civil litigation, namely: (i) documents (surat), (ii) witness (saksi), (iii) expert witness (ahli), (iv) assumption (persangkaan), (v) confession (pengakuan) and (vi) Oath (sumpah). The Law number 11 of 2008 on Electronic Information and Transaction expands the scope of evidence so that we now can use print out as a formal evidence. From all of the types of evidence that already mentioned, the type of evidence that a party has full control are the evidence of documents and witness; which also can be used as a foundation for the other type of evidence.

Therefore, while the party still has the control over the potential evidence, it is paramount that such party complete and maintain all of the documents pertaining the agreement/contract. On top of that, it is also advisable that the progress of the implementation of the business contract also be witnessed by someone who is worth of a witness stand.

From our point of view, those two types of evidence are the very minimum that a party should maintain from the beginning of a contract business in Indonesia and therefore they are prepared for a dispute even before the dispute takes place. And of course, it is every party’s desire that such preparation would not be used in the future. (eps)