Can text message be used against me in court

Question

My daughter's father has petitioned the court for custody modification and is using text messages he downloaded against me. The text messages in question were not sent to him but, rather, were conversations that I had with other people. conversations that I would have with my girlfriends, boyfriends etc. He went back as far as two years ago.

In addition he made the statement that they are real time. I sat there while his attorney read them out loud. None were real time nor was there any time or date stamp on them.

I have friends that are horrified that their conversations are out there. There is nothing illegal in the text messages - just private conversations. And of course some steamy conversations.

Does he have the right to use them against me? Am i protected by the privacy law? Are the admissible in court?

Answer 1

Any written communication is generally admissible

Subject to all the normal rules for admissibility of course.

For texts between you and a third party the major issue that springs to mind is relevance. As in, how are they relevant to the dispute between you and this man? If they are not, your lawyer should have objected to them on this basis, however, its too late now.

I'm curious as to how he obtained these and whether it was done legally or not. Illegality will not affect their admissibility as the exclusionary rule doesn't apply to civil matters, however, it does speak to the gentleman's character.

Answer 2

Generally speaking, the texts sound like fair game.

Assuming you're in the United States, there's likely no privacy law that will protect you against the use of information obtained by a husband/boyfriend/etc. whom you appear to have given access to your phone.

Nor is there any rule that I can think of that would limit him from using those records in court. Admissibility is very case-specific, but I can't think of anything that would allow you to keep them out of evidence. The incoming texts from other people could be characterized as hearsay, but most could probably be shoehorned into an exception to the rule against hearsay.

Even if there were some reason that they were not admissible, you would have waived that objection by failing to raise it at the time they were being read into the record.