Text Messaging

With the new Verizon cell phone plan, every user has text messaging included in the base price.  As a result, we no longer have text messaging blocked on firm phones.

Access your Messages:

You can access this through the “Messages” icon on your Android or iPhone.  Messaging is a convenient way to send short messages from one phone to another.  If you have children with phones, you may find that text messaging is their preferred method of communication.  You may also have clients or other attorneys who prefer to use text messaging.

Concerns About Using Text Messaging:

Using messaging in a business environment raises some concerns.  Before using it for work related communications, you should be aware of its limitations.

If a phone is unable to send a message for some reason, you are not sent any sort of return message saying it did not arrive.  Therefore, you have no way of being assured that your message was received unless the recipient sends a response.

Another issue for communications is that it can be difficult to keep a record of the communications.  Unlike email, text messages only remain on the phone.  There is no easy way to print out a copy or save it as a document.   If the phone dies and the data is not backed up, it is lost.  If conversations are deleted from both phones, there is no way to recover them.

There are some third party apps that can capture and save text messages.  I found a free app for the Android called SMS Backup and Restore.  It makes a daily backup of all my text messages which it saves to my Google Drive account.  I have not found an app for the iPhone that does the same thing, although there are a few pay apps that make claims I have not tested yet.  If you back up your iPhone to the iCloud, you will at least have a record of your text messages should your phone be lost or destroyed.

There is also no way to attach confidentiality notices in text messages, as the firm does with all emails.  If the text is mistakenly sent to a third party, the lack of notice that it is intended to be confidential may cause problems.  

I should note also that by default, the firm’s standard signature line is NOT added to your email if sent from your phone or other device, or if you use a third party email program to access your email.  You have the ability to add an automatic signature line on your phone or other device that contains the  information.

For the reasons stated above, it is much more preferable to use email rather than text messaging for case related communications.