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Is a text message a legal document?

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go1984

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NJ

Is a Text message a Legal Document ? On My 5yo son attends the before school program run by the local YMCA. The site director sent me a Text message on Feb 15 at 07:30 pm stating my son was removed from the program for non payment and I was to make arrangements for his care. (Per YMCA policy tuition is due on the first, payment received after the 10th is subject to 20 late fee and after 30 days they can terminate the child from the program) Her text further explained if my son arrived at the school in the next morning , she would file a report with DYFS (Family children services in NJ) for child neglect/endagerment for not providing care for him. Unfortunately I did not get this message, I was already at work. I work overnights at a maximum security state prison. We are prohibited from carrying cell phones into the facility. The DOC does have land lines and the YMCA does have this contact number. Im not sure why she didnt call me at work. (Maybe because it was after hours, the YMCA closes at 6. She probably didn't have my file) The next morning my husband unknowingly put him on the bus. The school did contact my husband and explained the situation and my husband was able to pick him up. Luckily my husband is home during the day. Around 1p my husband called the YMCA director to discuss the situation, and why she removed my son, the director explained "because I can" He then hung up her. Around 3:30p DYFS showed up to my house. The director at the YMCA filed a report a little after 1p per DYFS. NOT NICE! DYFS rep talked to my kids, looked around my home and said she does not have any concerns and said there was no need to open a case. So, can a business cancel a contract via Text? and not receiving confirmation of receipt??
 
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sandyclaus

Senior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NJ

Is a Text message a Legal Document ? On My 5yo son attends the before school program run by the local YMCA. The site director sent me a Text message on Feb 15 at 07:30 pm stating my son was removed from the program for non payment and I was to make arrangements for his care. (Per YMCA policy tuition is due on the first, payment received after the 10th is subject to 20 late fee and after 30 days they can terminate the child from the program) Her text further explained if my son arrived at the school in the next morning , she would file a report with DYFS (Family children services in NJ) for child neglect/endagerment for not providing care for him. Unfortunately I did not get this message, I was already at work. I work overnights at a maximum security state prison. We are prohibited from carrying cell phones into the facility. The DOC does have land lines and the YMCA does have this contact number. Im not sure why she didnt call me at work. (Maybe because it was after hours, the YMCA closes at 6. She probably didn't have my file) The next morning my husband unknowingly put him on the bus. The school did contact my husband and explained the situation and my husband was able to pick him up. Luckily my husband is home during the day. Around 1p my husband called the YMCA director to discuss the situation, and why she removed my son, the director explained "because I can" He then hung up her. Around 3:30p DYFS showed up to my house. The director at the YMCA filed a report a little after 1p per DYFS. NOT NICE! DYFS rep talked to my kids, looked around my home and said she does not have any concerns and said there was no need to open a case. So, can a business cancel a contract via Text? and not receiving confirmation of receipt??
Did you sign a written contract for child care with the YMCA? Their policies and practices regarding non-payment for services should be clearly outlined there. If you received a signed copy of said contract, then the YMCA could certainly enforce the non-payment and service termination/cancellation clauses simply by refusing to accept the child for care.

That being said, have you paid the past due child care fees? If not, you cannot expect the provider to watch your child for free. You broke the contract by failing to pay for services before the provider refused those services. If you cannot pay, then you cannot force the YMCA to provide child care services to you.
 

cosine

Senior Member
The issue of non-payment and cancellation of the service is unrelated to the family services complaint.
Indeed, they are unrelated. If there was a violation of contract terms on their part (assuming I had the same contract terms as the OP, which for the purpose of this post I do not know the contents of), I'd be suing them for that. I'd also be suing them for libel for the family services complaint (since these organizations are required by law to keep a record of all complaints).

If the contract did state that text messaging constituted notification once the text was sent, I'd have just never given my text number. In reality I do not have this service. But if I did, I would never use it for business contract purposes. I would not use email, either. Things can get lost or for various reasons not be available (for example, your computer gets infected or hacked and it takes a few days to get it fixed).

BTW, I do like to sue bad businesses. But my attorney always vets this. If he tells me I would be unlikely to win, then I won't. So far I'm 3 for 3.
 

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