The purpose of the paper is to introduce the concept of metadata in terms of evidence in civil proceedings by demonstrating the validity of this form of data as a document-related element. The paper not only seeks to answer the question of what metadata is, and which of these data are related to a document and in what way, but also asks what are some consequences of not introducing metadata to civil proceedings. The role of this overview is to present a certain situation, which will serve as a starting point for a necessary future review and revision of the approaches to evidence in order to develop a proper elaboration, classification and place for the novelty that electronic evidence remains — at least in countries with a continental system, which include Poland.
