Email Evidence and Its Admissibility in Court

Arsimi Gjitheperfshires brings together an expert community of parents and educators who seek to foster a collaborative platform for educating today’s young learners. As our site continues to grow in popularity, we strive to empower parents and educators alike with knowledge and insights that they can share with those within their learning environment. In this respect, we have been excited to partner with the law firm of Chris Larkin to help promote their new legal article on the comprehensive admissibility of email evidence. By explaining how the knowledge contained within the article can benefit your older children as well as teenagers with special needs, we hope you will find this information helpful in facilitating their learning process while at home or at school.

Just what is meant by the term email evidence? There are many who do not yet understand the significance of electronic communications today. Both parents and teachers can facilitate learning outcomes by helping both young learners and teenagers with special needs understand that while email evidence refers primarily to the content of electronic mail which has been exchanged between the parties, this type of communication is becoming more and more dominant in modern society. As such, it is becoming more common practice for courts to take the content of email evidence into account in specific cases. For example, if a businessperson and another party were negotiating an important contract, their email messages may be part of admissible evidence in a breach of contract dispute. A family law attorney may also use this type of evidence to prove that a parent is negligent or abusive if it shows otherwise.

Now that you understand what is meant by the term email evidence, you likely want to know if are emails admissible in court? Not all emails are pertinent to the matter at hand. An email that, for example, contains an accidental message sent to the wrong person or simply fails to provide information related to the case may not be admissible. In other words, simply because a person has sent an email to another party, doesn’t mean that an attorney cannot argue that this content is not relevant as evidence.

The attorney may argue that the emails are not relevant to the knowledge or issues contained in a specific case. Of course, the ultimate decision about what constitutes email evidence lies with the court as it reviews the content of the messages in question as well as the arguments made by the attorney on either side of the case.

As stated previously, the court will ultimately decide what content is admissible, but once it has been determined that the content of email evidence is relevant, there are certain elements which must be established to ensure it is admissible. These include: Admissible email evidence must also be free from hearsay issues and authenticated sufficiently for the court to consider it.

Just as with all other modern communication methods, email evidence should be used responsibly. This is especially true if you decide to allow your children to participate in communication with others via email. It is important to remind them not to share personal information with strangers, not to click links that might deliver malware to their computer, report spam appropriately, capitalize “I” and spell correctly, and not to make jokes that could be construed as threatening or hateful. Most importantly, prove to them with these tips that they have the ability to support their learning environments at any age.