Did you know that text messages and other electronic communications, such as e-mails, What’s App messages, and Facebook messages are increasingly being used in Connecticut divorce cases?
Why can certain messages be relevant to your divorce case? Most often, such messages are requested to establish an affair or illicit relationship. In addition to corroborating the existence of the relationship, these messages can be used to prove the transfer of money or gifts between your spouse and his or her paramour or any travel or trips they may have taken together.
Messages between your spouse and other people may also be relevant. For example, there may be communications between your spouse and a family member or friend, which could shed light on certain financial arrangements, like whether a payment by a family member to your spouse is a loan or gift, or whether the family member intends to regularly pay for certain household expenses on behalf of your spouse.
You should immediately alert your lawyer if you believe your spouse has certain communications which could assist your claims in your divorce. You should also alert your lawyer if you are concerned about any messages that you may possess.
It is possible that you may stumble across these messages on your own before or during your divorce case. While you cannot hack into your spouse’s electronic devices or apps, consider whether your spouse has given you permission to access the device. If you notice such messages while on a device with permission, you should immediately take a picture or screenshot of the relevant messages and save them in a safe place. Another way you may find this information is by accessing it via the shared iCloud account. Often times, messages and other information such as pictures, are easily accessible via iCloud. Alternatively, if you have concerns about your spouse discovering such communications, you should immediately change the passwords to your electronic devices and also turn off the iCloud sharing feature, if you have an iPhone.
These communications are not necessarily private, nor immune from disclosure during your divorce case. For that reason, we often advise our clients to write these messages as if the judge in your case were to eventually see them, or to communicate verbally as much as possible. For questions about how messages can be used or protected in your divorce case, contact the lawyers of Ferro & Battey, LLC today.