Legal Question in Family Law in Canada

Re: Cell phone records

You addressed this question to a British Columbia law firm, and as noted ont he LawGuru website all questions must be answered with reference to B.C. law.

Records from non-parties to the litigation can be obtained in 2 ways:

a. A subpoena can be issued to someone who has custody of the records and that subpoena can compel the person to bring the records to a trial, where the question of their admissiblility mayy be decided by the court

b. Before a trial, an application for an Order can be made; the Order sought will be to require the person who has custody of the records to turn them over to the opposing party's lawyer before trial.

The question really is about privacy; the question becomes one of whether or not the records can assist in proving or disproving some aspect of a case. For example if there is an accusation that the husband has committed adultery with a woman "Ms. X" and the husband denies even knowing "Ms. X", the husband's cell phone records may show he has called her or she has called him, so the records are relevant to the issue of the husband's credibility and the issue of the adultery.

Whether or not there is criminal activity has absolutely nothing to do with the issue; any records (cell phone, hospital, physician's, police, etc)which tend to prove or disprove part of the civil case are relevant and most likely a Court will order them to be dosclosed.