Text Messages as Evidence - Jonathan M. Stanley
Since the rise of smartphones, people have started to reduce the number of phone calls that they make and increasingly rely on text messages in order to communicate. It is far easier and faster to send a quick text message than make an entire phone call. The benefit and the problem, from a legal point of view, with the increase of text messaging is that there is now a permanent record of communications between people.
In court cases, communications can become a central issue. Perhaps one Party made a statement that can be construed as a threat. Or perhaps you need to establish the exact date that one Party properly requested reimbursement for an expense. Spoken testimony can be used to try to persuade a Judge of what actually happened. There can be problems with relying solely on testimony, though. Sometimes a Party’s memory of a spoken conversation is not reliable. Sometimes a Party may embellish the facts to make the Judge more sympathetic. However, a written record in the form of a string of text messages can be very persuasive.
Text messages and emails are often admitted as evidence to support arguments in Court. You think that your messages are hearsay and cannot be used. Hearsay is a court rule that blocks out of court statements from being used as evidence. Courts want Parties to testify regarding what they said rather than having other people testify as to what that party said. However, your text message is your statement and this is the most common exception to allow hearsay statements into court.
Another issue with emails and texts is that the records can go back years. The other Party’s attorney will be combing through thousands of messages in order to find statements that support his/her Client’s position. And the messages can be used by Parties that weren’t even the original recipient of the message. You may think that you are just gossiping with your friends, but that gossip can become a problem if your ex-spouse gets a hold of the messages.
The moral of the story is this: be mindful of the written record you are creating. Messages that are sent in anger or intended as a joke can be taken out of context and used against you months or even years later. Take time to consider how a message could look before you send it. And make sure that you intent is clear and that the communication paints you in a good light.
- Jonathan M. Stanley, Esq.