According to the current provisions of the Code on the Civil Procedure, a private document shall, until proven otherwise, have full probative force, verifying that the issuer has in fact made the statement that the document contains, or undertakes to consider himself bound by such statement, provided that the rules regarding the form of using witnesses is observed.
Usually there has been a line under the expression of „before us as witnesses” in the documents, and the witness used to place his/her signature above this line. Under the handwritten signature there used to be the address and most of the time the name of the witness again in a handwritten or typed form. According to the new Code of the Civil Procedure, the name and the address of the witness has to be handwritten under his/her signature and must be readable. Without this essential form, the document shall not be considered as a private document with full probative force, and only the readable and handwritten name and address will be accepted. This rule is will be effective from 1 January 2018.
By Rita Parkanyi, Partner, KCG Partners Law Firm
