Getting message records into a matter: exports, subpoenas, ICLs and report writers

Messages often matter in family law. This page is the practical guide to getting FenceChat records in front of you, an independent children’s lawyer or a report writer, from the simplest route to the most formal. Nothing here is legal advice.

Start with your client’s own export

Your client can export their Archive from their Dashboard at any time, on a plan that includes export. On the Legal plan, the export is a single time-ordered PDF formatted for legal proceedings, showing each original message as it arrived and as it was shown filtered, with the date, time and channel.

Every export also saves a small check file. It holds a fingerprint of each message and our signature, but no message text. Anyone with the PDF and the check file can confirm at FenceChat.com/verify that the record matches what FenceChat sealed and that nothing has been changed, reordered or removed since. The check runs in their own browser.

Ask your client for both files together. A PDF on its own can still be read, but it can’t be checked.

Certified copies

Where you need more formality, the account holder, or you with their written authority, can ask legal@fencechat.com for a certified copy. It comes with a certificate signed by our director as custodian of the records, naming the account, the dates covered and the number of records.

Fees for certified copies, affidavits and subpoenas, and when we reduce or waive them, are set out on our information requests page. We send a written estimate before we start, and we never delay complying with a valid order because a fee is unpaid.

Subpoenas and notices to produce

If the records belong to the other party, or your client can’t or won’t export them, formal process is the route.

• Where to send it. legal@fencechat.com, addressed to ROHAJO Pty Ltd t/a FenceChat. A document addressed to “FenceChat Pty Ltd” names a company that doesn’t exist.
• What to include. The FenceChat email address, the email address or mobile number of the account holder; a date range; and which records you want. If the account receives messages from more than one person, say whose messages the request is about.
• What happens next. We acknowledge within 1 business day with a reference and a response date, and aim to finish checking the request within 2 business days. We confirm a request is genuine with the issuing firm or court registry on a number we look up ourselves.
• What we produce. Each message in both forms, clearly labelled: as it arrived and as the user was shown it. Also the date, time and channel of each message, and basic account details. Your client’s real contact details are not included unless a court order requires them. We tell the account holder about the request unless a court order or the law says we must not. The notice describes the request. It never includes the papers or your details.
• What we don’t simply hand over. A user’s private notes and journal are not produced with their messages by default. If a subpoena validly asks for them, we tell the user and raise any objection with the court, which decides.
• What we don’t hold. Texts from numbers the user hasn’t added as a contact are never stored, so we can’t produce them.

Our default is to tell the user their records have been requested, unless the law or the order forbids it. Our information requests page sets out the full process. We hold records under Australian privacy law, and privacy complaints can go to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

Holds: nothing is deleted while a request is dealt with

When we receive a request, we place a hold on the account straight away, before deciding whether the request is valid. While a hold is in place, nothing can delete those records: not our scheduled system deletions and not the user closing their account. If you need records kept while you prepare an application, write to legal@fencechat.com and say so.

Independent children’s lawyers and family report writers

An independent children’s lawyer or report writer can ask a parent to export their Archive and share both files, or seek the records through formal process like any other party. Because the export shows each message as sent and as received, a reader can see both what was written and what the parent actually read.

Keeping periods matter

How long messages are kept depends on the FenceChat plan: 30 days on Essential, 90 days on Protected and 24 months on Legal. A client in, or heading towards, proceedings is best on Legal from the start. A hold keeps whatever is there when a request arrives. It can’t bring back messages that had already reached the end of their keeping period.