Evidence Center · Preservation
What you hold today, you may not hold next month.
Access changes when a case starts: portals close, threads auto-delete on their own settings, shared drives unshare. This page maps what tends to disappear in each family posture, who actually holds it, and the keep-steps for what YOU lawfully have — self-directed only. It never invents a retention period (sources' own settings are the only clocks), never suggests touching anything that is not lawfully yours, and never sends anything. In safety cases, safety comes first — before any of it.
Dissolution — the financial picture
Access changes fast when a case starts: shared portals get passwords changed, statements stop arriving, drawers get cleaned out. Preserve what you can lawfully reach today.
| What can disappear | Who actually holds it | The keep-step (yours, lawfully) |
|---|---|---|
| Online banking and card portals you have lawful access to | The institution — and portal access can change | Download your own statements as native PDFs now, straight from the portal |
| Shared cloud drives and photo libraries | The account owner — sharing can be revoked | Export copies of what you lawfully hold; note what lives where |
| Payment-app histories (transfers, notes) | The app; the account holder | Export your own history natively — the notes column often matters |
| The paper drawer: deeds, titles, policies, returns | Whoever holds the paper | Photograph or scan what is lawfully yours to copy; log where originals sit |
The mandatory-disclosure floor obligates both sides; the lawful routes carry the rest. The 12.285 crosswalk →
Parenting and timesharing
The record of daily life is the evidence: threads, calendars, portals, photos. It lives on devices and accounts that change, upgrade, and auto-delete on their own settings.
| What can disappear | Who actually holds it | The keep-step (yours, lawfully) |
|---|---|---|
| Message threads with the other parent | Your device and theirs; the app's own settings | Keep the thread ON the device; export natively where the app offers it; never delete after screenshotting |
| Exchange and schedule apps | The app account | Export or capture the history you can lawfully see, with dates visible |
| School portals and email threads with the school | The school; portal access is often shared | Save your own portal exports and emails; the school's own records travel by the lawful routes |
| Photos and videos of exchanges, events, conditions | The device that took them | Keep originals with their metadata; back up the device itself |
School and medical records of children have their own lawful routes and privacy overlays. The Records Desk →
Safety before evidence — in that order, always.
Preparing evidence can reveal itself: shared accounts, linked devices, and synced libraries show activity. Before any step below, Safety Mode and a certified advocate come first. Every step below carries its own "only if safe" condition on its face.
Injunction and safety postures
Safety first, evidence second — in that order, always. Shared accounts, linked devices, and synced photo libraries can reveal exactly the things you need private, including the fact that you are preparing at all.
| What can disappear | Who actually holds it | The keep-step (yours, lawfully) |
|---|---|---|
| Threats and messages you received | A device you control — if it truly is only yours | Only if safe: keep them on a device the other person cannot reach; a trusted advocate can help plan this |
| Your own injunction paperwork and case documents | You; the clerk | Only if safe: keep copies somewhere the other person cannot reach — an advocate or counsel can hold them |
Route safety before any evidence step — the safety page and a certified advocate come first, and § 119.0714 and the confidentiality rules protect court files in these cases. Safety Mode — first →
Relocation
Relocation cases run on geography, opportunity, and the existing schedule — much of it web content and offers that change or expire.
| What can disappear | Who actually holds it | The keep-step (yours, lawfully) |
|---|---|---|
| Distance, commute, and school research you rely on | The mapping and listing services | Capture with the creation date visible — the judicial-notice lane for maps has its own conditions |
| The employment offer or opportunity | The employer | Keep the written offer and every revision, natively |
| The current schedule as actually practiced | Your own records | Keep the calendar and thread history that shows the real pattern |
The relocation statute has its own petition requirements; the maps lane has its own notice mechanics. Judicial notice — the § 90.2035 lane →
Support and income
Income proof is the whole case — and pay records, benefit letters, and statements are easiest to hold when they arrive, hardest to reconstruct later.
| What can disappear | Who actually holds it | The keep-step (yours, lawfully) |
|---|---|---|
| Pay stubs and employer statements as they arrive | You; the employer's portal | Save each one natively when it arrives; portals prune on their own schedules |
| Benefit, unemployment, and tax documents | You; the agencies | Download and keep the native documents; note the source and date |
| The OTHER side's income records | Them; their employer; their bank | Not yours to self-collect — the disclosure floor and the lawful routes exist for exactly this |
The whole income-proof chain — the classes, the lanes, the certification — is walked on the flagship. Proving Income →
Dissipation and hidden assets
Money that moves quietly is the concern — and the line here is bright: preserve what YOU can lawfully see; never help yourself to accounts, devices, or passwords that are not yours.
| What can disappear | Who actually holds it | The keep-step (yours, lawfully) |
|---|---|---|
| Your own statements showing transfers you can lawfully see | You; the institution | Download natively, promptly — access to joint visibility can change |
| Titles, registrations, and mail you lawfully receive | You; the registries | Keep and log what arrives; certified copies exist for the registries |
| The other party's accounts, phones, and passwords | Them — full stop | Do not access them. Unauthorized access can be a crime and can poison the case; the lawful discovery tools are the route |
Compelled routes — production, non-party subpoenas, the deficiency machinery — are procedure, driven with counsel. The Procedure Matrix →
Capture before cleanup
- · Capture first, always: before deleting anything, changing privacy settings, or 'cleaning up' any account of your own mid-case, capture it natively.
- · Deleting or scrubbing content during a case can become its own fight — worse than whatever the content was. The keeping-versus-creating honesty on the Records Desk explains the split.
- · Ask counsel BEFORE any cleanup, not after. What looks like tidying can look like something else entirely across the aisle.
The keeping-versus-creating split — and why a preservation letter compels nothing — lives on the Records Desk; the case-start preservation tools live on the preservation guide.
Collect it so it can come in later
The five gates are easier to face with originals kept and captures made whole — the habits below are the consumer half of what Article X teaches.
Video & photos
- · Export the original FILE (share/export), not a screen recording of it playing
- · Keep the device that captured it — the original lives there
- · Note when, where, and what app or camera produced it
- · Do not trim, filter, enhance, or annotate the original — work on copies
- · Check the file carries its metadata after export; some share paths strip it
Texts & chat threads
- · Capture the FULL thread, not fragments — completeness questions follow crops
- · Use the app's native export where one exists; screenshots are the fallback
- · Show participants, dates, and times in every capture
- · Keep the thread on the device after capturing — the original stays put
- · Note which app, which account, and whose device for each thread
Records & documents
- · Download native PDFs from portals rather than printing or photographing screens
- · Keep confirmation and cover pages — they carry dates and sources
- · Note where each record came from and when you retrieved it
- · Keep statements whole — a page pulled from a statement invites the completeness fight
- · For anything official, remember certified copies exist — the clerk's certification carries its own credentials
The commonly forgotten digital corners
Chat apps beyond texts
WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram DMs, game chats — each app has its own export and its own delete settings
Version history on shared documents
Shared docs and spreadsheets keep edit histories the surface view hides
Cloud share and access logs
Some services show who opened what, when — where the service itself surfaces it
Phone backups
A thread deleted from the phone may still live in a backup you control — do not prune backups mid-case
Voicemails
Carrier and app voicemail purge on their own settings — export the audio file itself
Photo metadata and location
The photo's embedded data can matter as much as the image — export paths that keep it
Payment-app notes and histories
The memo lines tell stories the amounts alone do not
Recordings
Consent first, always — read the recording rules before capturing or keeping any recording of a conversation Recording & Consent →
Where this page stops
Nothing here preserves anyone else's evidence, and this page will never suggest reaching into accounts, devices, or records that are not lawfully yours. Getting the OTHER side's materials is procedure — the Procedure Matrix with counsel driving. Log what you keep in the Evidence Organizer.
Self-directed education only; retention behavior belongs to each source's own settings and policies, which change. Legal information, not legal advice.