Mobile phone technology has advanced by leaps and bounds over the past several years. The list of things that individuals can do on their phones has become staggeringly long. Such advances have had a variety of impacts on many areas of life. A recent survey indicates that the increased role mobile phones are playing in people's lives may be leading to mobile phones playing a bigger role in the realm of family law.

The survey was conducted by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. Reportedly, the organization surveyed its members regarding the use of evidence obtained from mobile phones in family law cases (such as divorce cases and child custody matters).

The survey's results indicate that evidence obtained from mobile phones is becoming much more common in family law cases. Reportedly, 92 percent of the lawyers who were surveyed said that the number of family law cases in which evidence obtained from a mobile phone was used has increased in the past few years.

It particularly appears that text messages on mobile phones have increasingly been showing up as evidence in family law cases. Reportedly, of the survey's respondents, 94 percent said that they saw an increase in the use of text message evidence from mobile phones in family law cases. Text message evidence also reportedly makes up 62 percent of evidence obtained from mobile phones used in family law cases.

One wonders whether we will continue to see an increase in the use of evidence from mobile phones (particularly text message evidence) in family law cases. One also wonders what impacts this increase in mobile phone evidence has had on family law cases and the parties to them.

Source: msn.com, "Divorce lawyers see more phone evidence, especially texts," Athima Chansanchai, Feb. 10, 2012