If a married man sends ambiguous messages to a woman, will the court rule him as cheating?

Legal consultation During the marriage between the couple, one spouse and a third party go to a hotel to stay and have sex outside of marriage. The spouse obtained his hotel booking records through connections in the public security system. When a couple has a divorce dispute, can one party’s hotel booking records be used as evidence of an extramarital affair?

Lawyer’s answer: According to judicial practice, hotel booking records can be used as indirect evidence and reference that one spouse has an extramarital affair, depending on the circumstances.

Lawyer analysis According to my country’s evidence rules, evidence must meet the following conditions before it can be recognized by the court in litigation:

First, the evidence must be objective and authentic.

The objective authenticity of evidence means that the factual materials used as evidence must exist objectively. This requires that the parties involved must provide real evidence to the people's court when presenting evidence, and must not forge or tamper with evidence. When a divorce dispute occurs, the hotel room opening records obtained by one spouse are often obtained through internal relations in the public security system, or through social investigation companies. Therefore, such hotel room opening records often do not have the seal of the issuing unit, so It is difficult to prove the objective authenticity of such hotel room opening records. Of course, if the party concerned can hire a lawyer to apply for a court investigation order to conduct an investigation based on the hotel room opening records that do not have the seal of the company, the hotel room opening records obtained based on the investigation order will have objective authenticity.

Second, the evidence needs to be relevant.

The relevance of evidence means that the evidence must have an inherent connection with the facts to be proved in the case. In other words, only factual materials that are helpful in determining the essential facts have legal significance. Specifically, when looking at hotel booking records, there is only an indirect connection between them and the extramarital affair of one spouse. It cannot directly prove that one spouse had extramarital affairs or extramarital sex with others, because the hotel booking may be for extramarital affairs or for extramarital affairs. It is used when traveling for work, and may also be used for work negotiations.

Third, the evidence needs to be legal.

The legality of evidence means that the factual materials used as the basis for deciding the case must comply with the legal form of existence, and the applicable processes and procedures for obtaining, providing, reviewing, preserving, authenticating, cross-examining and other evidence must also be Comply with legal provisions. Specifically when it comes to hotel room opening records, one spouse often obtains the other's hotel room opening records through connections or social investigation companies. Because citizens' privacy is involved, the legality of the evidence often has certain flaws.

To sum up, hotel check-in records can be indirect evidence of extramarital affairs between a couple, but the party providing the evidence must prove the authenticity and legality of the evidence, and must combine it with other evidence to identify him and a third party. An extramarital affair occurred.