Key points

  • Messages frequently matter in family law, but the way clients keep them rarely holds up well.
  • Screenshots are easy to dispute: they can be selective, undated, reordered, or edited.
  • A continuous archive captures what was actually sent, in order, with dates and times, generated automatically rather than curated.
  • No record makes a message admissible by itself. The court decides admissibility and weight. A clean source simply makes the record easier to rely on.

In family law, the messages between parties are often part of the picture: patterns of contact, what was agreed, the tone of the relationship, and sometimes evidence of behaviour that is directly relevant to the matter. The difficulty is rarely whether the messages exist. It is the state they arrive in. More articles are on our page for professionals.

When messages matter

Clients bring messages to you for parenting matters, for protection order applications, and to show a course of conduct over time. The useful version is a complete, ordered record. The version you usually get is a phone full of screenshots, assembled by a distressed client, with gaps, no reliable dates, and an obvious selection bias that the other side will be quick to point out. For protection order matters, see helping clients communicate under an AVO or intervention order.

The problem with screenshots

Screenshots are easy to challenge. They can be cropped to remove context, captured selectively, reordered, or, in principle, edited. Timestamps are inconsistent and easy to dispute. The act of a client choosing which messages to screenshot is itself an argument the other side will make about reliability. For a guide your client can use directly, see whether text messages can be used in family court and how to document emotional abuse. For what to suggest to clients more broadly, see what to recommend to high-conflict co-parenting clients.

What a complete record offers

A continuous archive is a better source because it is not curated. With FenceChat, every message the other party sends to your client’s FenceChat address or number is kept, in order, with the date and time, in the client’s encrypted Archive. How long messages are kept depends on the plan, up to 24 months on Legal. It is generated automatically as messages arrive, not assembled afterwards, so there is no selection step for the other side to attack. It won’t contain messages sent through other channels, texts from numbers your client hasn’t added, or anything older than the plan’s keeping period. On the Legal plan, your client can export the Archive as a single, time-ordered PDF rather than handing you a folder of images. See how to export a message archive.

What we do and don’t claim: On the Legal plan, the Archive exports as a PDF formatted for use in legal proceedings. We don’t claim it is admissible or that a court will accept it: admissibility and weight are for the court.

If you need records directly from FenceChat, our information requests page sets out how we respond to subpoenas, provide certified copies and hold records. We handle personal information under Australian privacy law.

The limits

No tool makes evidence admissible on its own, and you would not want a client believing otherwise. Authentication, relevance, and weight remain matters for the court and for you to run. What a continuous archive does is remove the avoidable problems: the gaps, the disputed dates, the selective capture. It gives you a cleaner starting point, which is often the difference between a record you can comfortably put forward and one you spend time defending. It works because the tool is one-sided: the other party does not need to agree.

Frequently asked questions

Is a FenceChat Archive admissible in court?

Admissibility and weight are for the court to decide. FenceChat keeps a continuous, time-ordered record of what was sent, which is a cleaner source than screenshots, but it does not by itself make anything admissible.

How is the Archive better than screenshots?

It is generated automatically as messages arrive, kept in order with dates and times, and is not curated by the client. That removes the gaps, disputed timestamps, and selection bias that make screenshots easy to challenge.

Can the client export it?

Yes, on the Legal plan. The Archive can be exported from the client’s Dashboard as a single PDF formatted for use in legal proceedings, rather than a collection of images.