Many people experience harassment at some point in their lives, and it is a difficult situation to endure. Texting, it seems, has become a way of life for many of us, and sending a goofy text here and an informative text there generally does not garner a good deal of attention. If someone whom you text regularly, however, decides that your texts are harassing in nature, you could find yourself on the wrong side of a harassment charge, and you need an experienced Lampasas County criminal defense lawyer on your side.
Harassment
In the eyes of the law, harassment amounts to repeated or unwanted contact, and such contact can take any number of forms, including:
Contact that is face to face
Contact made over the phone
Contact that takes the form of text messages
In Texas, your texts do not have to be especially threatening (or be threatening at all) in order to be deemed harassing in nature. Even spam-like blasts can qualify, and if the recipient feels harassed, it is his or her legal right to take legal action.
Steps You Can Take
If you believe you are being harassed in text form, there are some important steps that you can take to help stop what you perceive to be harassment.
Save the Texts in Question
If you feel harassed by a specific person, it is a good idea to save all the text you receive from that person. Even if you do not consider them all part of the harassment, they may speak to a pattern. Further, while you may think that your texts on your phone are not going anywhere, this may or may not be true – technology being what it is. Keeping a hard copy of the texts (including dates and identifying information) is a better plan.
Obtain Your Phone Records
You can go into your account with your cellular provider and download your call records right from the website. If you have trouble, Google can help you with that. By highlighting every call and text you receive from the offending party, you can clearly demonstrate the extent of the harassment (in physical form).
Organize Your Data
If you are making a charge that you are being harassed in text form, you are going to need to present your evidence – in the form of data – in a way that the officer you provide it to can readily understand. This can include:
A file that delineates every way that you have attempted to stop the harassment in question
A file that graphs the relevant calls and texts in timeline form
Any images that were included in the texts
A brief but detailed description of your relationship with the person harassing you
Charged with Text Message Harassment? You Need an Experienced Lampasas County Criminal Defense Lawyer
Brett Pritchard at The Law Office of Brett H. Pritchard in Lampasas County, Texas, is a practiced criminal defense lawyer who has the skill, experience, and drive necessary to help you build your strongest defense against text message harassment charges. To learn more, please do not wait to contact or call us at 254-501-4040 today.
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