Q: Can a divorce lawyer acquire text message content without a court order?
A:
It is not clear from your question whether the divorce lawyer is seeking the text message content from the opposing party or directly from the cell phone company.
In the event that the lawyer is seeking copies of text messages from the opposing party and the opposing party is not willing to produce the documents, the lawyer would need to seek a court order to obtain the messages. At the hearing, the opposing party would be able to challenge the production of the text messages.
In the event the lawyer is seeking the text messages directly from the cell phone company, the lawyer would need to obtain a subpoena. Cell phone companies are highly regulated and cannot turn over text messages without either the account holder's consent or a subpeona.
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