Courts Confront Admissibility of Text and Instant Messages

Source:
Stevenson, Karen L. "Courts Confront Admissibility of Text and Instant Messages." Litigation News 33.3 (Mar. 2008): 4-5. Academic Source Complete. EBSCO. [Library name], [City], [State abbreviation]. 17 Sep. 2009 .

Abstract:
The article discusses the admissibility of text and instant messages as electronic evidence in a number of court trials in the United States. The value of these evidences was discussed in the articles as well as the various problems on unreliability, type of format and ambiguity. A couple examples of court cases with Text and IM’s as electronic evidence were given. One case accepted the technologies as legal and right evidence due to its traceability element. The other case on the other hand found that the use of text and instant messaging as evidence was deemed unreliable since the implementation or use of these technologies can always be done anonymously. Lastly, the article explains how Litigators, Judges, Juries, and other Court Officials should learn the new trends in Technology and familiarize themselves on the different terms, definitions, functions, and operations involve.

3 Things That I Learned:
1.How the Judicial System taken in to account the importance of different technologies as evidence in many court trials. It is remarkable to see that they even made a published glossary guide of leading IT terms that will help Court Officials learn the leading and latest terms on technology.
2.The use of electronic evidence really depends on a case-by-case basis. It may be used in one trial but entirely not possible in another.
3.Was able to give me an update on the different factors of IM’s and text messages such as traceability, flexibility, how it can be done anonymously, etc.

Reflections:
Technology really has come a long way. Now it can be used as electronic evidence in different court cases. When it comes to the usage of these technologies in Court Trials, I definitely agree with what the article is saying, which is the “case-by-case basis”. Court Officials who has the greater knowledge on the law field should carefully examined the presence of these kinds of evidences and make sure that they are properly utilize. With the factors such as traceability, flexibility, anonymous sending, multiple usage, and ambiguity and confusion problems, the use of these electronic evidences can either lead to a fair judgment or totally screw things up.