Getting the Dirt – Obtaining Evidence
of an Affair
By: Gerri L Elder
When you suspect a spouse of cheating, you may have the urge
to do some private investigating on your own to get the truth. While there may be things that you can find
out on your own, there are also certain precautions you can take.
E-Mail Accounts
Divorce lawyers often report seeing clients who come into
the office with a stack of printed e-mail correspondence, excited or relieved
that there is proof that their spouse is having an affair.
The first question that a divorce lawyer will generally ask
is exactly how the evidence was found. In some divorce cases, accessing an e-mail account
without authorization of the owner can be a serious crime – even if the owner
is your spouse. Additionally, unless
explicit permission was given to access the e-mail account, whatever is found
is generally not admissible as evidence in divorce court.
Text Messages and
Phone Records
There is software that makes it possible to download text
messages from cell phones to a computer and even recover deleted text messages. Some programs also make it possible to view
all numbers dialed to text messaged by a phone or wireless device; however, although this is possible it's not advisable.
If a phone doesn't belong to you, it may be illegal to
attempt to view and extract text messages, access voice mail or view contact
lists. Even if a hard copy of damaging
text messages were obtained, it would likely not be admissible in divorce
court.
IM or Chat Logs
Many chat and IM programs keep a log - a recording of
private Internet conversations. Even if
these logs are deleted, they can still sometimes be recovered. Whether or not this type of evidence is
admissible in divorce court may depend greatly on circumstances.
If a computer belongs to and is used solely by one spouse,
it may be a violation of law for the other spouse to extract information from
it without authorization. This is
especially true if the computer is password protected and the snooping spouse gets around security to access the data. Any illegally obtained evidence is unlikely to be used in divorce court.
However, if a family computer that is used by both spouses
contains damaging information, a spouse who discovers this information may be
allowed to use it as evidence of infidelity during divorce. People are often unaware of what information
computers actually record and retain.
In some cases, divorce courts have held unprotected data on a
family computer is fair game for use as evidence. Courts may consider information that's not
password protected and is discovered on a family computer to be similar to
situations where a spouse finds a note from a lover in the family car or in
a pocket while doing laundry.
Traditional Methods of Getting Evidence of an Affair
While it may be tempting to try to get the dirt on your
spouse by yourself, great care must be used to not to violate privacy
laws. In many cases, taking the
traditional route of hiring a private investigator - who should be aware of and
operate within the laws - may be your best bet.
The above article is merely a summary and is not legal advice. For advice on obtaining evidence,speak to a divorce attorney in your area.
