Documents

Incident log

It has been going on for months and I no longer remember what happened when.

Verified 14 August 2026

This is not a letter and it goes to nobody. One sheet you fill in for yourself on the day something happens: what happened, when, where, who did it and who else was there. Eight months later the difference is between „they harassed me constantly“ and fourteen dates with names. The first is not evidence. The second is — and it is the way into every other document here.

Goes to: Nobody. It stays with you — that is the whole point. The only document here that is not filed anywhere.
Who else reads it: Nobody — unless you produce it yourself. But write expecting the whole log to go, not the lines you would choose: in a dispute the other side can ask the court to order you to produce it (чл. 190, ал. 1 ГПК). The law does know of refusing when a document touches your private life (чл. 191 ГПК), but that is for the court to weigh — a question for a lawyer, not something to rely on. And if the notebook lives in a shared drawer, it already has a second reader.
Can this be taken back: Entirely — for as long as it is only with you. Nothing is filed, nobody is notified: it is the only document here you can destroy. The copies are not destroyed with it, though — the message you sent and the photo already in the cloud stay where they are.
Deadline: None — which is exactly why it goes first. Everything else here has a clock already running. This you can do tonight, while you are still deciding whether to file anything at all.
Legal basis: чл. 180 ГПК — a sheet signed by you is evidence that the words in it are yours. чл. 181, ал. 1 ГПК — when such a document also has a certain date as against third parties. Its practical force comes from чл. 9 ЗЗДискр: the other side has to prove it did not discriminate — but only once you have presented facts.

Before you write the first line

A log cuts both ways. Kept on the day, it carries weight — which is exactly why the other side can ask to see it. The lines that help you come in the same package as the lines that hurt you. Write only what you saw and heard and would repeat in a courtroom: no verdicts, no guesses about what the other person was thinking.
If something worries you enough that you want to leave it out — that is a question for a lawyer, not something to hide. „Just do not write it down“ detonates under cross-examination: the other side knows about it, and your own log says it never happened. At „Действие“ they answer for free.
The log itself can out you. Eight months of notes about anti-gay harassment are also the most complete written account of your own orientation that exists. Decide where it will live before you write the first line.
Do not out other people. Do not write down anyone else’s orientation or HIV status — not even when it is part of what happened. Your orientation is yours to disclose; theirs is not yours to write down.
Do not open or print this on a work or school device, and not over the work Wi-Fi. The network sees the page address, and the office printer keeps a history with the document’s name in it. Use a copy shop, a printer at home, or copy it out by hand.

What the log does later

It structures your own testimony. People do not testify badly because they are lying — but because they are asked for a date and what they remember is a feeling. A list gives you back the order: when, where, who, what was said.
It dates what memory blurs. Eight months on, „somewhere around Easter“ becomes „17 April, about 14:20, in the store room, in front of two people“. One is a recollection. The other can be checked.
It shifts the burden of proof. Under чл. 9 ЗЗДискр, once you present facts from which discrimination may be presumed, the other side has to prove equal treatment was not breached. A vague recollection does not do that work. A dated list of names and places does.
But the date at the top binds nobody else. Under чл. 181, ал. 1 ГПК a private document has a certain date as against third parties only from certification, from reproduction in an official document, or from some other fact proving it was drawn up earlier. Plainly: the other side can always say you wrote it the night before the hearing.
So an entry is worth more if it is anchored the same day in something whose date does not come from you. Except that every such way creates a copy you cannot take back. The options are below — each with its cost.

What you type here stays here

The form has nowhere to submit to: the rule form-action 'none' in the site's security policy forbids your browser from submitting it anywhere at all. We receive nothing, and could not.

But the network sees that you opened the page. Do not open this on a work or school device, and not over the work Wi-Fi.

The document

INCIDENT LOG

This sheet is a blank form. Print it empty and copy it, or copy it out by hand into a notebook. One incident = one entry. An entry is written on the day it happened or the next morning, in ink. Old entries are not copied out fresh and dates are not changed: a log kept as things happen carries more weight than an account assembled later.

BEFORE THE FIRST LINE 1. Only what was seen and heard is recorded — only what could be repeated in court. This log can be demanded by the other side as well. 2. Another person’s orientation and another person’s HIV status are not recorded. 3. If something is hard to write down, it is a question for a lawyer, not something to leave out. Every sheet is signed.

ENTRY No ______ Date: [ dd.mm.yyyy ] Time: [ hh:mm ] Where: [ the place ] __________________________________________________________

WHAT HAPPENED — word for word, as far as it is remembered. Quotation marks around the exact words only. [ what was said and done ] __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________

WHO DID IT: [ name and position ] __________________________________________________________ WHO ELSE WAS THERE: [ the names of anyone present ] __________________________________________________________

WHAT IT MEANT for work or for health — one line: [ what changed ] __________________________________________________________

ANCHORED THE SAME DAY IN: nothing — just this sheet WHAT I KEPT — and where it is: [ photos, emails, messages — and where they are ] __________________________________________________________ Signature: ____________________

The next entry — on a new sheet or on a new line.

No printer? Print the blank form at a copy shop and fill it in by hand — a handwritten document is just as valid. It is also the safest: no file, no print queue, no Downloads folder.

Before you press Print: untick "Headers and footers" in the print settings. Otherwise the page title and the site address appear on the sheet — and whoever receives the document sees them.

How to keep it

The dullest option is the safest: a paper notebook, in ink, one entry per incident. No file, no account, nothing that can be wiped remotely. It has no certain date against anyone and it is still worth keeping — a log with no certain date is far more than no log at all.
Where it lives: somewhere you control. Not the shared drawer, not the bag somebody else tidies. Your desk at work is not yours — it belongs to the employer and it can be gone through without you.
A message to somebody you trust — the cheapest anchor. The cost: the entry lives in their account and inside a friendship that can end. If they ever become a witness, the message is part of the case.
An email to yourself — works, but never to a work address: the work mailbox belongs to the employer. And not at all if a partner or a relative has access to the account.
A photo of the sheet — the date and time stay inside the file. Two catches: messaging apps usually strip that data when it is sent, and the photo lands in your gallery and normally in the cloud.
Filing with an institution against a receipt — the strongest anchor and the most exposed. The date is no longer just your word for it. But the incident is no longer just your business either: a file opens, and the other side is usually served a copy.
If you fill this in in the browser: nothing is saved and everything disappears the moment you close the tab. Print it or copy it out by hand before you close.
If you do keep a file: give it a name that says nothing, and keep it out of the folder your photo app uploads automatically. And remember that a phone keyboard learns words and later suggests them in another app.

Crisis lines Free legal help What the law says