Family cases are increasingly decided on WhatsApp, iMessage and social media exhibits. Most of that material arrives as screenshots. Most of it is challenged. Most of those challenges succeed, at least in part, because a screenshot cannot answer them.
What the court is prepared to rely on
- A forensic extraction with sender attribution, timestamps and identifiers intact.
- Reconciliation between the two sides of a conversation where both devices are available.
- A short, plain English expert report explaining what was extracted and how.
What to advise the client on day one
Do not delete anything. Do not export a chat and rely on the export as evidence. Preserve the handset in the state it is in, and get it to an examiner. The exhibit that is produced will be transformed, and so will the credibility of the party producing it.