Evidence Navigator · adapted from the evidence taxonomy
Location history & phone-carrier records
Phone location history, GPS logs, and the carrier's own records of calls and texts — offered in family cases to show patterns: where exchanges happened, who called whom, when. The same data class cuts both ways: it can prove a pattern, and it can reveal that someone is being tracked.
Wired to the law it implements
Retrieved live from the source-locked corpus — never generated.
Safety first: if domestic violence touches your case, start at the safety page before any evidence planning.
“Authentication or identification of evidence is required as a condition precedent to its admissibility.”The five gates, for this item type
Neutral education — each gate runs separately, and passing one is never presented as admissibility. The Five Gates page carries the full statutory walk.
- Relevance
Location and call patterns commonly matter only when tied to a real issue — a missed exchange, a disputed overnight, contact that an order prohibits. Volume without a tie commonly draws a § 90.403 fight.
- Authentication
Expect questions about whose device, whose account, and how the export was made. Carrier records commonly travel with a records certification; a phone's own screen commonly needs a witness who knows the device.
- Hearsay
A carrier's business record is one lane; a map app's route history is machine output more than a person's statement — courts treat the two differently, and the difference is contested territory.
- Best evidence
The account and the carrier hold the originals; a screenshot of a location screen is the copy. The census habit applies — know where the original lives before the hearing.
- Privilege
Location data touching a lawyer's office, a therapist, or a shelter can expose protected relationships — flag it to counsel rather than publishing it in an exhibit.
The organizer checklist
Generic, neutral, and yours to select from — organization, never legal acts. The Evidence Organizer is where the log lives.
- Export from the account itself (carrier portal, device settings) rather than photographing screens where possible
- Note the account holder, device, and date range for every export
- Keep the export unedited — cropping a route or a call log invites an alteration fight
- Tie each entry to the issue it bears on (exchange, contact, schedule) in the Organizer
- If you believe YOUR location is being tracked, that is a safety issue first — see Safety Mode before anything evidentiary
Objections to expect — as education
- Lack of authenticationThe objection says nobody has shown the item is what it claims to be — the condition precedent the statute states in one sentence..
- HearsayThe objection says the item is an out-of-court statement offered to prove what it asserts.
- Best evidenceThe objection says the contents of a writing, recording, or photograph are being proved without the original — the screenshot-versus-the-phone fight..
- Unfair prejudice (§ 90.403)The objection concedes the item may be relevant but says its probative value is substantially outweighed by unfair prejudice, confusion, or waste of time — the weighing objection..
Getting this class of evidence INTO the case has its own rulebook — the Procedure Matrix maps disclosure, discovery, and the subpoena to the family rules that govern them.
Where this page stops
Whether YOUR location history & phone-carrier records clear these gates depends on facts and foundations this page cannot see and will not guess. Independent attorney review is the route for judgment.
Statutory excerpts are verbatim from the hash-verified corpus; statutory text renders in English as enacted. Legal information, not legal advice.