texts and court question

Pamelacake · July 2013

Will I need to screen shot all of the texts or will they just look at the phone if they want to. I have everything typed out as well and certain things highlighted.

Also.. BM and her FI are pretending to not get any texts regarding SD's. They did this the whole week of the fourth of july but they got the text DH sent calling BM a dead beat mom (I didn't condone and was mad) bc they texted right back. DH texted today about SD's and they are pretending not to get them again. I know their plan is to say DH never did text about SD's.. only the one calling BM a name.

But they can't delete the texts from DH's phone *rolls eyes*

So do I need to screenshot? I just want to make sure I have everything I can to be prepared. TIA

Littlejen22 · July 2013

I would bring screen shots. And obviously you need to include all of them and not just the ones that you you look good or right. Better to have more instead of less.

Wahoo · July 2013

I would think you need screen shots because you need a paper trail for files. You can't expect a judge to hold onto your phone to review the case, lol.

Pamelacake · July 2013

LOL.. That's what I was thinking.. and no.. nothing is left out... not even nasty messages from DH..

I just didn't want to do all of that if it wasn't necessary... This will be over 1000 messages from 7 different phone numbers from BM. Guess I should get busy! Is there a certain app that is good for screen shots? I was just taking pics from the phone of the texts...

lookame3639 · July 2013

piffle42:
You may be able to request them from the phone company.

From what verizon has told me only attorneys can request the text messages from the company. Even then they have to be subpoenaed. I would take in screen shot photos and the typed up version. The typed up version is what the judge prefered in my case but having the screen shots as backup proof is never a bad thing

Pamelacake · July 2013

lookame3639:
piffle42:
You may be able to request them from the phone company.
From what verizon has told me only attorneys can request the text messages from the company. Even then they have to be subpoenaed. I would take in screen shot photos and the typed up version. The typed up version is what the judge prefered in my case but having the screen shots as backup proof is never a bad thing

Thank you all and I will have DH contact the phone company today and atty tomorrow but I will continue to do the screen shots... I wish I would have started long ago.. it's gonna take forever!

Nineoceans · July 2013

Print but honestly our judge did not read ours. We had over 30 pages, maybe if she had actually read she would have made a better decision but our court experience was all about forcing people to compromise and had nothing to do with best interest of the child.

At one point during testimony our attorney was standing at an angle where he could see the judge behind the bar and instead of typing notes she was browsing the Internet during testimony. BM got very lucky.

Sigir · July 2013

Nineoceans:
Print but honestly our judge did not read ours. We had over 30 pages, maybe if she had actually read she would have made a better decision but our court experience was all about forcing people to compromise and had nothing to do with best interest of the child.

At one point during testimony our attorney was standing at an angle where he could see the judge behind the bar and instead of typing notes she was browsing the Internet during testimony. BM got very lucky.

Ita this is what I was going to say. In our experience and per both our attnys it's better to try to keep things as brief and succinct as possible bc most judges won't read it at all. My exh who always goes pro bono always presents w pages and pages of exhibits and it just ends up annoying the judge. just my two cents.

Pamelacake · July 2013

I documented everything like this for my DS like 6 years ago but didn't have the text issue.. nothing was done through text cut I documented everything and it was a waste of time.. the judge didn't need to see any of it. The judge himself was crap.. didn't put in court orders like he was supposed to .. things like that.

DH will be going in front of the same judge over SD's and we already know BM is going to lie about anything she can in court. She has already said she is. It may be a waste of time, I know but I want to have it just in case =/

This judge has already screwed DH's court order up the first time they went.. he says one thing in court and the court order says something totally different.

I really hope he looks into things like he should.. When SD's were drugged in April by BM and her FI, CPS still will not return DH's phone calls. He has heard nothing about it. It just really sickens me.

Pamelacake · July 2013

Thank you.. I was wondering how I was going to prove the numbers.. ahh.. I didn't even think of that!

The atty has all documentation up until the middle of June. I don't know that he has done anything with it but he has it.

ambrvan · July 2013

lookame3639:
piffle42:
You may be able to request them from the phone company.

From what verizon has told me only attorneys can request the text messages from the company. Even then they have to be subpoenaed. I would take in screen shot photos and the typed up version. The typed up version is what the judge prefered in my case but having the screen shots as backup proof is never a bad thing

I dealt with this already! Do NOT RELY ON YHE PHONE COMPANY! Of course they will give you whatever they have to, but their system can only back up up to 3 days of messages for any account. This is for Verizon. They told me that even if a judge subpoenaed them, they can still past provide the past 72 hours because that is all their system records. Other than that, you can only get date, time, and phone numbers sent to and received from.

Don't make the same mistake we did.to our backups on our computer were lost, and we did not have the old, very crucial messages saved to an outside source. So all we had to go on when we went back court a few weeks ago were my written records which had a summary of text conversations with dates and times. Not very supportive.

So yes, make sure you have it all printed out for the judge to hold in hands and read.

sprky79 · July 2013

chattychiqa:
Be sure to include a screen shot of your address book entry with her name and number in it, that way she can't say you plugged someone else's number in with her name in an attempt to fabricate the texts.

This. No judge is going to read this stuff right during the hearing. The print screens should be attached as exhibits to your motion or other pleadings.

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