Text messages, emails, photographs, and computer files are discoverable in a Georgia divorce on the same terms as paper records.
The Same Statute Covers Both
OCGA 9-11-34 is the document production statute, and it reaches information stored electronically, not just paper in a filing cabinet. Uniform Superior Court Rule 5.4 assumes as much: a discovery plan under that rule may set “[a] schedule of discovery including discovery of electronically stored information,” “[t]he format by which electronically stored information will be produced,” and the “[s]ources of any stored information that is not reasonably accessible because of undue burden or cost.”
The Request Still Has to Fit the Case
In Anderson v. Mergenhagen, 283 Ga. App. 546 (2007), a woman being followed and photographed by a man subpoenaed his cell phone records, hoping to show who he was calling while he trailed her. The Court of Appeals held the trial court was within its discretion in quashing the subpoena, because who he happened to be talking to was “not relevant to the intrusiveness of his behavior.”
You Cannot Simply Demand the Device
In Dikeman v. Stearns, 253 Ga. App. 646 (2002), a client in a fee dispute with her former divorce lawyer asked for a full copy of the hard drive of the firm’s computers, plus every bill the firm had sent any client for a year. The trial court refused, finding the requests overbroad, oppressive, and an undue burden, and finding that they invaded other clients’ privacy. The Court of Appeals affirmed, noting that “the competing interest in an individual’s right to privacy must be accommodated in the discovery process.”
So the way to reach a spouse’s phone or laptop is to ask for the categories that matter – messages with a named person, records of one account, photographs from a date range.
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This post is a quick overview of the law and is not intended as legal advice. Please feel free to contact our office for a consultation if you have questions about this or any other legal aspects regarding your case!