Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Family Law Procedure
Can a party’s phone be subpoenaed in a Florida family law case? This was an issue in the case De Armas v. De Armas, 3D25-1993 (Fla. 3d DCA December 31, 2025).
In this case, one party produced incomplete or altered versions of WhatsApp and text messages which did not show sender, recipient, or timestamp information. As a result the trial court ordered that party to surrender her phone for forensic evaluation in order to obtain accurate messaging data and metadata relevant to the issues in the lawsuit. The party filed a petition for writ of certiorari challenging this order.
The appellate court denied the petition, holding “To obtain a writ of certiorari, a party must demonstrate a departure from the essential requirements of the law that results in material injury that cannot be corrected on plenary appeal. [internal citation omitted]. But Petitioner has failed to prove that the trial court departed from the essential requirements of law. See Talley v. Consol. Respondents, 350 So. 3d 415, 420 (Fla. 1st DCA 2022) (‘Accordingly, the trial court could not have departed from the essential requirements of law, especially when Petitioners concede that the text messages contain relevant information and the trial court has gone to great lengths to ensure that any specific privacy or privilege concerns may still be addressed in the future.’); Antico v. Sindt Trucking, Inc., 148 So. 3d 163, 166 (Fla. 1st DCA 2014) (‘The record here indicates that the trial court closely considered how to balance Respondents’ discovery rights and the decedent’s privacy rights. The order highlighted the relevance of the cellphone’s data to the Respondents’ defense and it set forth strict procedures controlling how the inspection process would proceed.’). As a result, we deny the petition for writ of certiorari.”
This article is for information only and is not legal advice. Schedule your meeting with a Miami family law attorney to determine the next best steps in your case.