David Allen Legal Tuesday: Emoticons As Legal Communication

Attorney David Allen discusses the struggle confronted by courts as they try to give meaning to emoticons and emoji. Increasingly people are arguing that the e-mail which becomes important in a case must be read with the meaning of the emoji incorporated. Courts are attaching specific meaning to a emojis. David Allen reviews several cases.

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Closed Caption:

emoji emoticons hey you see them you
probably have some on your keyboard but
what exactly do they mean if they're
used in a message was that takes us to
this week's case or cases because the
courts are struggling with this in a
number of cases and we've seen cases
coming down different ways when people
are arguing that the emoticons that are
contained in their emails really have
meeting and in some instances of court
finally doing in some instances they say
they don't know what exactly are we
dealing with well we're dealing with
here the courts trying to find its way
through the brand new world not bad new
but to the world of communication
example be had a guy college student and
he was subject to a suit for harassment
in that suit for harassment he or you
hate it's not really a harassing
situation I'm involved in here because
when I sent some of the texts and some
of the emails I said I had an emoticon
that had a ton that was sticking out and
that means I really wasn't taking this
seriously
well the judge wasn't persuaded by that
argument now the case we had sexual
assault case
sexual assault case in there said hey
you know in this instance the sex was
consensual she agreed to this because
look at the text you sent me she has her
eye winking she has that emo to Cobb
that has a week judge wasn't convinced
by that and said that I winking emoticon
did not in any way indicate that she had
agreed to the sex that had taken place
another instance we had someone who is
accused of attempting to murder his wife
and one of the emails it became
important that he had a stuck out tongue
or are you a this is just a little bit
of fun it really doesn't make any
difference
court wasn't persuaded by that either
another instance we had a guy who was
arguing hey I got a ticket to Paris
sitting next to the scale that I really
wanted to get to know she's kind of
brushed me off but I had that ticket
sitting right next to her and hey this
is going to be really blow the america
and that he had in his email which he
had told friends about this effort had a
winking eye he said well if the
winding-up indicates this was all just
in fun and I really trying to harass her
get a spot court said that we can take
on that in fact it make any difference
in that Wiedeking emotive really did
change the nature of the charges and
found that he was engaged in harassment
so the motorcars make a difference
people are you they do oftentimes the
court says it doesn't make a difference
but I'm the court does find that makes
the difference that better than the
communication it's part of the
communication and therefore it must be
considered well this is something courts
are grappling with on a case-by-case
basis when you hear the discussion you
will understand why because we bring you
these cases are we bringing cases every
week so you understand how the law works
I'm David Allen