Family Law Software for the Evidence Your Cases Run On

Custody and divorce cases are decided on text messages, social media posts, emails and bank records, and most family law software is built for billing and calendaring, not for getting that evidence out of a client's phone in a form a court will accept. Hearsay is the other half: pay-per-use software that collects complete, verifiable evidence from your client's own devices and accounts, organizes it into a timeline you can search, and produces it for the court, with no seat fees and no contracts.

It works alongside whatever practice-management system you already use. For how firms use it in custody and divorce matters, see the family law use case and Using text and voice communications in a divorce case.

What it collects for a family law matter

Complete text message threads. SMS, MMS, RCS, iMessage and WhatsApp from iPhone and Android, with full metadata and thread structure, voicemail and call logs (Android), collected on the client's own computer in about an hour. The whole conversation, not the screenshots the client chose. Text Message Collector.

Social media. Posts, comments, likes, connection lists and DMs from LinkedIn, Facebook, Threads, Instagram and other platforms, collected from the platform's own data export with original metadata preserved and hash verification, without the client sharing a password. Social Media Collector.

Email. Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, iCloud Mail and IMAP accounts, culled by keyword, folder and date. Cloud Email Collector.

Financial records. Bank and credit card accounts from 12,000+ institutions, with transactions grouped into categories for income verification and budgets. Financial Transaction Collector.

Documents. Files up to 1 GB each through the standard client portal, larger by arrangement, searchable alongside everything else, with optional OCR. Client document portal.

What you do with it

Build the timeline. The timeline builder organizes text messages, emails and social media interactions chronologically in one case file, and lets you filter by keyword, date range or participant. The pattern of a co-parenting relationship, or the absence of one, is visible on a single screen.

Search across every source. Cross-document, cross-source search with keyword, date and participant filtering, and programmable search when you need more control. Automated translations for threads in other languages.

Review together. Real-time collaborative tagging and commenting, tagging for privilege and relevance, and per-user access control so the paralegal, the associate and the partner see what they should.

Produce for the court. Defensible PDF exports in the familiar message-bubble format, RSMF load files for eDiscovery platforms, and Excel, .txt, .doc and .csv. Every export carries the encryption hashes recorded at collection, the audit log and chain-of-custody documentation. Review tools.

Why the collection method matters in family court

Family court exhibits are routinely challenged on authenticity, because the parties know each other and screenshots are easy to dispute. A message thread collected from the device with full timestamps, sender numbers and a hash answers the questions a judge asks under the authentication rules (Federal Rule of Evidence 901; California Evidence Code §§ 1400–1401 and the equivalents in every state) in a way a screenshot cannot. When the other side produces a selective set of messages, the complete thread is the response. See Are text messages admissible in court? and Are text messages hearsay?.

Built for how family law firms actually work

• Clients collect from home. No phone shipped to a lab, no office visit. The client installs the extractor on their own Windows (7+) or Mac (10.14+) computer, connects their phone, and chooses what to share. Live support and a rental laptop program cover the clients who need them.
• The other party too. Send a collection request to the opposing party from the case; the collection runs through your account with a review-and-release step on their side.
• Pay per use. A free account, then a per-collection charge. No seat licenses, so the whole team can review. Managed service is available for larger matters. Pricing.
• Fits your stack. Hearsay handles evidence; your practice-management system keeps handling intake, billing and calendaring. Exports load into Relativity, Everlaw and other review platforms via RSMF.

Frequently asked questions

Is Hearsay a family law practice management system?

No. Hearsay is evidence collection and review software: it gets text messages, social media, email, documents and financial records out of your client's devices and accounts, organizes them, and produces them for court. It works alongside the practice-management system you already use for billing, calendaring and intake.

Can it collect the other parent's messages?

Your client's side of every conversation, including everything the other parent sent to them, is collected from your client's phone. For the other parent's own device, Hearsay supports collection requests to opposing parties, run through your account with a review-and-release step on their side.

Does it work for iPhone and Android?

Yes: iOS 8 and later, Android 10 and later, running on the client's Windows 7+ or macOS 10.14+ computer.

How long does a phone collection take?

Typically one to one and a half hours, with the client keeping their phone the whole time.

What does the court receive?

A PDF in message-bubble format with full timestamps and sender identifiers, searchable, with the hashes, audit log and chain-of-custody documentation from the collection. Signed affidavits describing the process and expert testimony are available when a matter needs them.