For your upcoming child custody case, your intention may be to fight for primary or sole custody over your child. This is because you may believe that your child’s other parent is unprepared to properly care for your child or otherwise unwilling to cooperate in a future co-parenting dynamic. However, the exemplary incidents you cite may mean nothing without concrete evidence to back it up. Otherwise, it may simply be your word against theirs. With that said, please continue reading to learn whether you can use text messages, emails, and other written communications as evidence for your custody case and how one of the experienced St. Louis child custody lawyers at Stobie Law Group can help you utilize the right legal approach.
Can text messages and emails be used as evidence in a custody case?
You may assume that text messages and personal email correspondences may be too informal to present to the Missouri family court. Although you may be surprised to learn that the court is generally willing to accept this evidence. This is so long as these written communications meet certain legal standards, such as the following:
- They are authenticated: you must verify that the messages have not been altered, and that the sender and recipient are clearly identifiable.
- They are original: you must submit the original messages without cropping screenshots or using other editing tools to exclude part of the exchange.
- They are relevant: you must ensure that the shared messages apply to your concerns for your child’s best interest (i.e., they indicate abuse, neglect, etc).
How can I recover deleted text messages and email exchanges?
Admittedly, you may not consider yourself the most technologically savvy individual. In turn, you may find yourself having trouble tracking down the specific text message and email exchanges you wanted to show the Missouri family court. Or, your upcoming custody case may have been somewhat unexpected. With this, you may be kicking yourself, so to speak, if the storage settings for these applications delete items after a certain timeframe passes.
Rest assured, this does not and should not diminish your stance in your custody case proceedings. We may advise you to bring on a technology expert to your legal team, who may search through backup programs, cloud storage systems, and phone records to recover these lost messages. This expert may even testify on your behalf before the court to confirm the authenticity, originality, and relevancy of this evidence.
Even though you may have solid evidence you can use against your child’s other parent, you may not exactly be proud of some of the things you wrote to them. However, as your case is ongoing, you mustn’t delete anything from your phone or email account. This may raise red flags for the court, but even worse, it may prompt the judge to convict you of spoliation of evidence and impose negative inferences, evidentiary sanctions, and financial penalties.
To conclude, to ensure you put your best foot forward when starting your case, please consult with one of the skilled St. Louis family lawyers from Stobie Family Law Group. We are willing to answer any questions and concerns you may have regarding your situation, no matter how minor you may think they are. So call us today.
