Legal Question in Family Law in Florida
Evidence-Email Read Receipts
In a family custody case, my son's father's attorney, adviced that we should use email to send notifications or communicate. We were using yahoo without a problem but the dad stopped using it for convenience (he lies alot and did so in court) so he is claiming he does not have internet right now, However I signed up to getnotify. com which you add a picture to the email and it provides you with a read notification and tells you the ip address of where it was read and ISP as well, and sure enough, he has been reading the emails just as I thought. He just ''chooses'' not to respond so then he can lie about his actions and/or responses. Can I use this in court as evidence to knock his credibility? I plan on bringing in the read notifications print out which has the link at the bottom.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Evidence-Email Read Receipts
The appellate courts haven't told us yet how much "electronic information" is admissible in court. What little they have told us isn't good for your side. I think your lawyer will tell you that the read receipts are hearsay, and that they can't be used in court, but tell your lawyer about them anyway and bring them to court. The judge may want to see them to check if your son's father is lying in court (which is what you want them for, anyway), which technically isn't hearsay. You may have a problem authenticating them, which means proving they weren't faked by you in Word or something, but your lawyer can explain that.
You may need an internet expert to come to court with you. Talk to your lawyer about it. The judge may not understand things like "IP numbers" and "ISPs" or even "read receipts."
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