2. Legal Articles
  3. Divorce & Family Law
  4. Text messages, Email and Facebook Posting as Evidence

REFINE BY AREAS

Search Legal Articles

Text messages, Email and Facebook Posting as Evidence

by Refik W Eler on Jun. 29, 2017

Divorce & Family Law Criminal Accident & Injury 

Summary: Text messages, emails and Facebook posts may be used as evidence if all of the proper predicate has been established for admissibility in a court of law.

Text messages, emails and Facebook postings may be admissible in evidence in Florida court proceedings if they are
lawfully obtained, properly “authenticated” and a custodian of records is called to testify about their
authenticity. Absent those safeguards admission against a party opponent may be thwarted. Also, if
the data was unlawfully obtained opposing counsel should be able to have the data excluded and even
possibly pursue criminal charges on the offending party.

In any case where email, text and/or Facebook postings may be useful to prove a party’s claim they should
be preserved as soon as possible. “Letters of preservation” are often sent to the ISP or other entities to
preserve that data. Finally, sometimes a subpoena is required to produce the data from an ISP or other
entity. This can involve a legal battle with the ISP or entity as many such ISP’s and entities with fight to
preserve the confidentiality and/or proprietary interest that they have and afford their clients.

Legal Articles Additional Disclaimer

Lawyer.com is not a law firm and does not offer legal advice. Content posted on Lawyer.com is the sole responsibility of the person from whom such content originated and is not reviewed or commented on by Lawyer.com. The application of law to any set of facts is a highly specialized skill, practiced by lawyers and often dependent on jurisdiction. Content on the site of a legal nature may or may not be accurate for a particular state or jurisdiction and may largely depend on specific circumstances surrounding individual cases, which may or may not be consistent with your circumstances or may no longer be up-to-date to the extent that laws have changed since posting. Legal articles therefore are for review as general research and for use in helping to gauge a lawyer's expertise on a matter. If you are seeking specific legal advice, Lawyer.com recommends that you contact a lawyer to review your specific issues. See Lawyer.com's full Terms of Use for more information.