What needs to be done for an email to be considered legal proof of someone having written it?
E-mail is absolutely hard evidence that MAY BE used in court with 100% success and in fact its one of the best pieces of evidence you can use against anybody. This is due to the fact that there are so many ways you can track it back to the sender-even if he/she tries to deny.
Of course, as always get a good attorney to take care of that.
Cool, that’s what I needed to know. Is there any particular (technical) information I might need from the email beyond the to, from, and body?
The legitimacy of email may be questionable - just look at how spammers get away with bulk mailing us all and forging their identities. However, emails may be able to supplement existing material. If it is important, consult your lawyer first.
Originally posted by GrantShady
Cool, that’s what I needed to know. Is there any particular (technical) information I might need from the email beyond the to, from, and body?
You’ll need the full headers…
Probably affidavits from your server administrator/ISP, and his as well.
Originally posted by MonsterZero
[B]E-mail is absolutely hard evidence that MAY BE used in court with 100% success and in fact its one of the best pieces of evidence you can use against anybody. This is due to the fact that there are so many ways you can track it back to the sender-even if he/she tries to deny.
Of course, as always get a good attorney to take care of that. [/B]
Not really. For one, you can’t prove that the owner of the email acount sent mail to someone… anyone can get access to a password, login and send email from your account.
Just because you own an email address doesn’t make it like a hard copy signed with your signature.
Even if you track email, lets say you have a house party, how can you prove the owner of the email acount sent email to someone if there are / were multiple people using a computer.
It’s not good evidence at all.
It’s about as good as a phone call from one place to another. Are phone records not good evidence then?
It all depends on the court, the email evidence presented, etc.
The only surefire way is to have a forensic map of the computer sending the email presented at evidence with the email from the computer. But that will still only tell you that someone with access to that computer sent it.
Steelsun now with civil suits in the US you only have to prove your case on a preponderance of the evidence not beyond a reasonable doubt. There is a difference.
So you won’t need such extremes to win a civil case.
If you had a murder case email records might not be proof enough, but to establish a business contract they probably are.
probably not due to the fact that contracts aren’t usually legally binding unless they are signed. the lawyers i have talked to think otherwise about email. even though it’s the “digital age” or whatnot, a signature still means more than anything else, really.
Originally posted by firstmark
Steelsun now with civil suits in the US you only have to prove your case on a preponderance of the evidence not beyond a reasonable doubt. There is a difference.
So you won’t need such extremes to win a civil case.
If you had a murder case email records might not be proof enough, but to establish a business contract they probably are.
Right, but with a Civil case, either side can win with the preponderance. So the side fighting the legitamacy of the email can easily show how email is simple to forge or fake.
agreed.
Where can I find documentation on how easy this is?
I have someone trying to use home made fake e-mails
against me in court. They have their own server, and they
have merely added and removed text from the body of the
messages. I am sure that the signature/date of the e-mail
as saved is possible to document, but that could be fixed
as well I am sure. I guess that attys should know this stuff
already, but I would like to have some information to back
my statements up with also.
Are you 100% sure about that?
In UK law a contract is formed where offer and acceptance are present for consideration. This needn’t be written, signed, or even typed - it can just as happily be verbal (although a little harder to prove).
It may be entirely different in the US, but as what you’ve stated is a common misconception in the UK, just want to make sure you’re positive about that…