Can Text Messages Be Used as Evidence at a Pennsylvania PFA Hearing?

Under Rule 901, the person offering a message must produce evidence sufficient to support a finding that it is what they claim it is.
^[1] For digital evidence, the rule gives these examples of ways to show who wrote a message:

• Direct evidence, such as testimony from someone with personal knowledge.
• Identifying content in the message itself.
• Proof that a person owned, possessed, controlled, or had access to the phone or account at the relevant time, when corroborated by circumstances indicating they wrote it.

The official comment to the rule adds points that come up often in PFA hearings:

• Owning the phone or account is not enough by itself to prove who wrote a message. The comment cites a case in which a social media account bearing the defendant’s name, hometown, and high school was insufficient on its own.
• Identifying content can include the sender naming themselves or showing knowledge only the author would have.
• If the other side admits sending a message, that admission can help authenticate it. Whether the contents can be used to prove what they say is a separate hearsay question, covered below.
• The person offering a message does not have to prove that no one else could have written it.

The other side may claim the number is not theirs, that someone else had their phone, or that the screenshot was edited. A message that includes details only the sender would know, comes from a number or account tied to that person, and fits what happened before and after is much harder to dismiss.

If you were served with a petition, these are the same points our attorneys press in PFA defense when messages are offered against you: whether the messages were properly connected to you, what the rest of the conversation shows, and whether anything was cropped or changed. Do not contact the other party to argue about the messages, and do not delete anything from your phone, even if the messages look bad.

Disappearing, Edited, and Unsent Messages

Some apps delete messages automatically, and some let the sender edit or unsend a message after it is delivered. That does not automatically put the message out of reach. Under Pennsylvania’s rules, when the original is lost or destroyed, and not through the bad faith of the person offering it, other evidence of what it said can be admitted, including testimony from the person who saw it.
^[2] You would still need to connect the message to its sender, and the judge decides how much weight to give your account.

• As soon as you safely can, write down what the message said, when you saw it, and the account or number it came from.
• If an app showed that a message was edited or unsent, note that too.
• Tell your attorney, who can advise whether other records of the message may exist.

Authentication and Hearsay Are Different Questions

Under Pennsylvania’s rules, hearsay is an out-of-court statement that a party offers to prove the truth of what it says. A message can be authenticated and still draw a hearsay objection. Two situations come up often in PFA hearings. First, a message offered for a purpose other than its truth, such as showing that a threat was made at all, is not hearsay. Second, when one side offers the other side’s own messages against them, Pennsylvania treats them as an opposing party’s statement, which is an exception to the hearsay rule.
^[3] That covers the most common situation: a plaintiff presenting the defendant’s texts, or a defendant presenting the plaintiff’s. Whether a particular message is admissible still depends on who wrote it, who is offering it, and why.

Why Complete Message Threads Can Help

A single screenshot invites two questions: what came before it, and what came after. A threatening line can read differently once the judge sees the message that prompted it, and a cropped image makes the judge wonder what was left out. If you introduce only part of a conversation, Pennsylvania’s rules let the other side ask the court to have the rest, or a related message, introduced at the same time when fairness requires it.^[4]

• Keep the entire thread, including your own replies, stored where the other person cannot reach it.
• Do not present screenshots in a way that removes important context or could make the conversation misleading.

Deleted or Edited Messages Create Credibility Problems

PFA hearings often turn on who the judge believes. Missing or altered messages can give the other side an argument: if part of the story was deleted or changed, why trust the rest?

• Cropping or editing a screenshot can create disputes about authenticity or context. Keep the original messages or unaltered screenshots available, and clearly separate any copies you mark up for your own use.
• If messages were lost when a phone broke or was replaced, say so plainly rather than leaving the judge to guess.
• If you believe the other side deleted or altered messages, tell your attorney.

Messages are rarely the only proof. Photos, medical and police records, and witness testimony each follow their own evidence rules at a protective order hearing.