Can text messages be used as evidence in court?

Yes, short messages can be used as court evidence, but this kind of electronic data is easy to be tampered with and must meet certain formal requirements in order to get rid of the obstacles of authenticity and relevance when it is used as evidence. Simply using SMS to prove that it is not powerful, there are still some restrictions.

According to Article 22 of the Supreme People's Court's "Several Provisions on Evidence in Civil Proceedings": "When investigators collect computer data or audio-visual materials such as audio and video recordings, they should ask the respondents to provide the original carrier of relevant materials."

Audio-visual materials refer to the form of evidence that proves the true situation of a case by using images, audio and data stored in a computer. It can be inferred from the above that mobile phone short messages can be used as audio-visual materials or as evidence. As long as it conforms to the three characteristics of evidence, can be mutually verified with other evidence, and forms a relatively complete chain of evidence, it should be accepted as evidence.

Three characteristics of evidence:

1, objectivity of evidence. The objectivity of mobile phone short messages requires that mobile phone short messages must truly reflect the facts of the case, and the content of mobile phone short messages must not be tampered with or forged.

2. There is relevant evidence. The sending and receiving of short messages shows that the sender is active and the receiver is passive, and the sending and receiving of short messages is a corresponding relationship. Each mobile phone number corresponds to a unique user, and short messages can only be sent and received between two specific mobile phone numbers. In the absence of other evidence to the contrary, the sending and receiving of short messages between two specific mobile phone numbers can be regarded as the communication behavior of two specific users at a specific time, and the content of mobile phone short messages can be regarded as relevant to this case.

3. The legitimacy of the evidence. The court must review SMS from the following three aspects: First, whether the SMS evidence is objective and true. Second, whether the subject, time, place and object of evidence collection of mobile phone short messages comply with the relevant provisions of the law. Third, whether the evidence of SMS is illegally input and controlled by others.

References:

Judging from the legality of mobile phone short messages, it is legal to use the mobile phone after going through the legal network access procedures, and the short messages received by the mobile phone are legal evidence. Therefore, in line with the following circumstances, the court still has the basis to use SMS as effective evidence.

1, to ensure that mobile phone messages are not deleted and kept in the storage space or memory card of the mobile phone.

2. If the content of the short message is fixed, you can ask the personnel of the notary office to notarize it, extract it into words and notarize it, which has a strong proof function. During notarization, the notary office should keep the brand and model of the mobile phone for later inspection. The evidence submitted in this way, the other party should provide stronger evidence, should be overturned. In most cases, the notarized materials of the notary office will be adopted by the court.

3. After the lawsuit is filed, the notarized documents or fixed mobile phone short message evidence will be handed over to the court, or the contents of the mobile phone will be tested by the judge and recorded on the spot. When you take notes, you should also tell the model and brand of your mobile phone. Except for a few types of mobile phone short messages, most of the collected short messages currently on the market cannot be modified.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Some Provisions on Evidence in Civil Litigation