The present invention relates to a method for certifying and subsequently authenticating original physical or digital documents. The concept of the evidence lies in the dual nature of a physical information item and a digital information item, one being the reference for the other that cannot lie amended at the risk of the evidence being lost. For a physical original document associated with a bubble seal there is a corresponding time-and-date-stamped, proprietary paperless reference counterpart. For a time-and-date-stamped, proprietary digital original document there is a corresponding reference counterpart in the form of a bubble seal.