What courts look for in digital evidence
A plain-English walkthrough of why metadata, source, and authentication matter — and what judges sometimes exclude.
- Written for
- Parents
- Published
- Reading time
- 1 minute
Text messages, call logs, co-parenting-app threads, and email all count as records a court can consider — with conditions. The conditions are where most self-represented parents get stuck.
The three questions a judge silently asks
- Is this what the sender actually wrote? (authentication)
- Where did it come from and how do I know it is unchanged? (source + integrity)
- Is any of it hearsay, and if so, does an exception apply?
Where screenshots fall short
A screenshot is fine evidence in many hearings, but it is easy to edit and difficult to cross-check. Courts increasingly prefer records exported with their metadata preserved — timestamps, sender identity, and a documented chain of custody.
See how CustodyComms works for parents→
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