Guides

How to organize texts and screenshots for custody court

In a custody case the messages are often the record. Here is how to keep them so the people reading them can tell who sent what, and when.

Make every screenshot show who and when

• Get the date and time in the picture, and the name or number of the person who sent it.
• NNEDV suggests also taking a screenshot of the contact page, to show which number the messages came from.¹
• For a conversation too long for one screen, NNEDV mentions screen recording, with the same warning: some apps tell the other person.¹

Keep the whole conversation

One line lifted out of a thread invites the question “what came before it?” Keep the messages around it too, and when you use a few, be ready to say how much of the conversation you picked.

Keep the originals untouched

• A screenshot is a copy. Keep the phone, the thread or the export it came from.
• Don’t crop, edit or write on your only copy. Mark up a second one.
• For email, keep the email itself. NNEDV: “A forwarded email will not have the same information”.¹

One list, in date order

Put every message in the order it happened, give each one a number, and write one plain line about what it shows. Keep your own feelings about it in a separate note, so the list stays just the record.

Check your own court

The Hotline says it plainly: “each state has different laws about what evidence and documentation can be used in court.”² Your court’s website, a legal advocate or a lawyer can tell you what yours expects.