WhatsApp messages in family court: getting them into the bundle
Usually you don’t, unless the court says so. Under Practice Direction 27A, copies of WhatsApp messages must not go in a family court bundle unless the court directs otherwise. The exception is specific messages the court needs to read, or that will actually be referred to at the hearing. So check your latest court order, and if it doesn’t say, ask your solicitor or the court. If messages can go in, include only those specific messages, in date order.
What Practice Direction 27A says
- The bundle should contain only documents relevant to the hearing that the court needs to read or that will actually be referred to.
- Some kinds of document must not go in unless the court directs otherwise. They include copies of emails, text messages, WhatsApp messages and social media messages, voice notes and photographs. This doesn’t stop specific documents going in that the court needs to read, or that will be referred to at the hearing.
- In cases other than financial remedy cases, statements go in the bundle without attaching or repeating those documents. So you can’t attach a chat to your statement instead.
- Unless the court directs otherwise, the person who applied prepares the bundle. If they have no lawyer and the other side has one, the other side’s lawyer does it.
- The bundle is normally a PDF of up to 350 pages, unless the court gives permission for more. It has an index at the front, and documents in each section are in date order.
- Outside financial remedy cases, pages are numbered by section: A1, A2 and so on, then B1, B2. Financial remedy bundles are numbered 1, 2, 3 throughout.
- Unless the court sets other dates, the parties should try to agree what goes in the bundle seven working days before the hearing. The bundle is sent to the court and the other parties five working days before.
The judiciary has a guide to preparing family court bundles for people without a lawyer (opens in a new tab).
If the court allows messages: how to do it yourself, free
- Check your latest court order. If it doesn’t say whether messages can go in the bundle, ask before you prepare them.
- Export the chat from your phone and choose Without media. See how to export a chat. A computer may not hold the whole chat, so use the phone if you can.
- Keep the export file exactly as it is, and keep the chat on your phone. Do any cutting down in a copy.
- Pick only the specific messages the court needs to read, or that will be referred to at the hearing. Include the messages either side only when they’re needed to make sense of one.
- Put them in date order, exactly as sent, with the date, time and sender. Add no comments.
- If someone else is preparing the bundle, send the messages to them in good time. If you’re preparing it, put them in the section the court directs and number them with the rest of the bundle.
- When you refer to a message, use its page number in the bundle.
Or let ChatBundle do it
ChatBundle does the picking and the layout for you. Load your WhatsApp export: it’s read on your device. Check for free that your chat was read correctly, with a sample page of your own messages, before you pay. One bundle is £19, for one chat and one issue.
- After you pay, AI picks the messages that relate to the issue you describe. You untick any, or search the chat and add more.
- Message text is never changed. Each message shows its date, time and sender.
- The PDF has a cover, an index, page numbers and a short, neutral summary with page references.
- The cover shows a fingerprint of your export file, so the bundle can be matched to the original later.
For co-parenting chats, the cover reads “Record of messages”, and the summary draws no conclusions about anyone. ChatBundle can’t tell you whether messages can go in a court bundle: ask first.
What it doesn’t do: it only reads WhatsApp chat exports, not SMS, iMessage or screenshots, and it leaves out photos and voice notes. It doesn’t give legal advice, tell you whether messages can be used, or send anything to a court, tribunal or scheme.
Not legal or HR advice. This guide sums up what official guidance says. It isn’t advice on your case. Rules change, so check the current rules and any orders in your own case before you rely on them.
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