Legal Question in Technology Law in California

Re: Email Perjury

Tampering (technically known as "spoliation") is a problem with many types of evidence, not just electronic data such as emails. The same laws apply regardless of the type of evidence involved.

The methods of proving spoliation vary from one type of evidence to another, but how to prove an email has been altered is more a question of technology than one of law.

There are experts who can usually tell whether a message has been altered even if the sender and the ISP no longer have their data. (These experts are computer professionals, not lawyers.) Other experts may be able to find the data on your system even though you think it is gone.

If the other person has sworn under penalty of perjury that the modified email has not been modified, then you are dealing with perjury as well as spoliation. Otherwise, perjury probably isn't an issue -- at least not yet. When and if it becomes an issue, the applicable laws will again be the same ones that apply to other cases of perjury. There are no specific laws for perjury about electronic evidence.