Watch out what you type to your spouse on text messages during and immediately prior to your divorce proceedings; they may be discoverable in court. However, one of the main issues is that usually the text messages are not in existence to be discoverable. First, cell phone service providers, I have found, try their hardest not to release information about customers’ accounts. Second, many providers have instituted policies that do not provide for the retention of any text messages on their computers. In fact, other fellow blawgers have noticed that trend, too. See http://www.el-paso-divorce.com/elpasodivorce-celltxt.php.
The other problem is getting the text messages off the phone to have documentation of the actual messages off of the phone. Many phones do not have the capability to be plugged into a computer, and even if they do, the text messages on the phone are not able to be reached. It’s become common practice though to ask clients to go make copies of the front of the phone with the text message, its date, and time displayed or to take pictures of the text messages with digital cameras. In any case, if a divorce client or any other client receives a text message, the client should save the message because many phones have the capability to save messages for a discretionary amount of time; this is to enable the ability to copy the message at a later date.
I must warn though. There are laws against accessing ones electronic information by hacking past a password protected screen, but if obtained legally or sent to you, these messages can be powerful tools in court for a divorce attorney.