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Text Records and email records

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adognamedrex

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

I am currently in the process of filing for divorce. My wife wants to take every cent that I have. She is grasping at straws to try and force me to pay her both child support and alimony. I have been married for 10 years and my wife didn’t work for 7 of them. I asked her to get a job or go back to school but she refused. Now she is accusing me of cheating on her and her lawyer told her that they are going to subpoena my email and telephone records to prove that I was cheating. I was wondering if it was even legal to subpoena those things in a case like this and how can I prove that she didn’t work because she chose not to, not out of necessity? If she can subpoena my email and text records, will it show everything that was ever sent or received?
 


mistoffolees

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

I am currently in the process of filing for divorce. My wife wants to take every cent that I have. She is grasping at straws to try and force me to pay her both child support and alimony. I have been married for 10 years and my wife didn’t work for 7 of them. I asked her to get a job or go back to school but she refused. Now she is accusing me of cheating on her and her lawyer told her that they are going to subpoena my email and telephone records to prove that I was cheating. I was wondering if it was even legal to subpoena those things in a case like this and how can I prove that she didn’t work because she chose not to, not out of necessity? If she can subpoena my email and text records, will it show everything that was ever sent or received?
She can possibly get a subpoena of email and telephone records IF SHE CAN SHOW THAT IT'S RELEVANT. Furthermore, she will have to show cause - I'm not sure if "I think he's having an affair" is sufficient. It's not clear how a telephone record would prove adultery and even email might not. If you didn't commit adultery, you have nothing to worry about. If you did commit adultery, the records will show that you talked with someone on the phone, but not what you discussed (of course). The email records are trickier. She will certainly be able to gain access to email records on your computer (possibly even having an expert try to recover deleted email) so anything still on your computer would be fair game. Email on the internet provider's server is tougher - since I doubt if they keep the email around long, but I could be wrong. In the case of email, if the court issues a subpoena, she will get the entire message.

Adultery won't affect the divorce itself, anyway. AL offers no fault divorce where she doesn't need to prove adultery to get a divorce, so that's not a reason to bring it up. However, adultery CAN be used to justify property division other than 50:50 in Alabama, so she can use it to get more than 50% of marital property.

Your wife won't be able to take every cent you have. She'll be entitled to half of marital assets at a minimum, possibly more if adultery is proven (possibly a bit less if there are other factors in your favor, but this is less likely).

One thing you're going to have to get used to is that it's completely irrelevant whether she stayed home by her choice or mutual choice. It was a marriage, so the money earned by the couple belongs to both parties, not just the one earning it. It doesn't matter whether she stayed home out of pure laziness or because you made a joint decision for one spouse to stay home with the kids. After 10 years, there's a good chance of your paying alimony which would normally be based on current earnings. You can ask the court to impute (assume) an income level for her, but unless she's a nurse or doctor or some high demand occupation, they will probably impute a low income (minimum wage in some cases).

In addition to the possibility of alimony, the non-custodial parent WILL be paying child support. But, again, you need to change your mindset - you're not paying HER child support, you're paying child support for the child(ren).
 

Ohiogal

Queen Bee
She can get a subpoena of email and phone records as it would be relevant -- it happened during the marriage and could show dozens of different things. She could also subpoena bank records and anything else of the OP since they are MARRIED and this is a DIVORCE. Hence anything that was part of a marriage (including the individual parties' records) is relevant to the divorce. Look for your email to be subpoenaed and obtained. I take it you were cheating and hence have something to hide which is why you are worried.
 

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