Need some legal advice in regards to users PM's possibly being used in court

[tryckjävel]

Heres the situation;
I run a message board for volvo enthusiasts where members often make deals for parts either through our classifieds section or directly. One of our members recently had his home/garage broken into and a volvo specific item was stolen but other more generic items of value were left untouched which led him to believe it was a targeted theft by someone possibly through the board.
He realizes that publicly selling the item through the forums would be stupid but thinks it could have been sold through PM or rather he has some suspects of his own that he would like me to look at their PM's to try and find evidence. Its something i could easily do through directly access the database through phpmyadmin or something, and obviously i would only consider providing information pertinent to the case, but what is the correct course of action here?

Do i wait for a subpoena or warrant from the lead investigator before providing "private" information? Is all data from the board considered public domain? What kind of information about the board do i provide?

Just wondering if anyone has been in a similar situation or knows what is the best way to protect myself and the community we've built on my site. Obviously i want to help in any way i can but i dont want to be burned for it if it turns out to be used in court as evidence.

thanks in advance

[harmor]

Everything on the database is yours, even the "private" messages. You have the right to view all private messages.

[tryckjävel]

Everything on the database is yours, even the "private" messages. You have the right to view all private messages.

but if i provide "my" messages as part of a criminal investigation doesnt that drag me into the mix as far as a witness? Wouldnt the messages and data need to be validated before being considered authentic?

[filburt1]

Just don't get involved into you're requested to do so. PMs are hardly secure from a data storage standpoint; their security just comes from not exposing plain text that's in the database to the end user. Anybody with half a brain and phpMyAdmin can browse all private messages to their heart's content. If the theft actually did occur due to a sale conducted through private messages, the culprit is an idiot if he thought nobody could later read his messages.

[harmor]

but if i provide "my" messages as part of a criminal investigation doesnt that drag me into the mix as far as a witness? Wouldnt the messages and data need to be validated before being considered authentic?

If he did in fact sale Volvo parts through the private message system of your message board then you're already involved. You will have to help the investigators with IP Addresses so they can locate the suspect and the person he sold the items to if he did sell the items. I don't know if your host or any host keeps logs of phpmyadmin edits but if they don't it's easy to edit the details of the text in phpmyadmin without anyone knowing accept for the person or people who knew what it was before you changed it.

[ManagerJosh]

In all honesty, I would wait to get a subpoena before turning over any information. This does not however prevent you from conducting an internal investigation and having the information on hand if you do receive a subpoena.

[Make Money?-old]

How do you read members PMs as site admin?

Its not my style, but could be usefull in cases where there is trouble brewing....

The topic is very interesting to me... relevant to my forum indeed..

[Wayne Luke]

You should contact a lawyer for legal advice, not post on forums.

[chrispadfield]

Wayne, someone running a hobby board can not necessarily just go out and afford to pay hundreds (or normally thousands) of $ to talk to a lawyer, most of whom won't even know what a forum is let alone complicated legal questions about viewing private messages.

tryckjävel, you have no legal abligation to do anything until a court demands it. Whether you decide to investigate yourself is up to you and whether you can look at your members private messages would depend upon your own privacy policy and the legal framework from where you live and where your data is hosted.

Your safest course of action is to do nothing at this point.

[tryckjävel]

The sherif that is working the case left me a message and already expects that i'll require a warrant for the information if something shows up but never referred to anything specifc other than for me to keep an eye out for anything.
I will on my own read through the PM's of the users in question from some daily backups and see if theres just cause for delving any further into it. Unless court ordered to that is.


and yes Wayne, a lawyer is the place to go... but since this isnt anything Im held responsible for and im only providing evidence if i find some its not something im going to pay someone for. I was simply asking if anyone else has had something like this come up.

//edit - And thanks for everyones input, its really appreciated

[Wayne Luke]

Most lawyers in the U.S. will give you a 30-60 minute consultation for free. Usually doesn't cost anything to ask a few quick questions. It doesn't matter if they know what forums are. They know what email and private communications are and this is the same thing. The laws are the same. They would be able to give advice on it. Not only that but many cities have legal aid centers which are free lawyers for those that cannot afford a lawyer in a civil matter.

Also it could turn into a legal proceeding against the forum owner even if the information is disclosed under subpeona or a warrant so it is best to still consult with a lawyer. All depends on the lawyer of the person who has their PMs disclosed.

[tryckjävel]

Most lawyers in the U.S. will give you a 30-60 minute consultation for free....
Also it could turn into a legal proceeding against the forum owner even if the information is disclosed under subpeona or a warrant ...

thanks for the heads up, i'll talk to the sheriff and see what his expectations are... it may just be a "keep an eye out for this stuff" and we may not even get into the PM's.

On my own i'm gonna take a glance through the db and see if anything pops out... if there’s truly nothing there to worry about than i'll share that with him and see what he does.

all in all i want to help out the board members as a whole but its not my place to decide where to be discriminative.

[Wayne Luke]

If you are talking to the sheriff and basically going to be a witness for the prosecution. You can also think about having him refer you to the ADA in charge of the case. They are the ones who will get the actual warrants or subpeona and will use the information. It is another free option, just keep in mind that the ADA's primary goal is a successful prosecution.

[Freesteyelz]

*It may be premature for you to speak with a lawyer.

The victim has the responsibility to report the theft to his/her local authorities; from there they'll decide what's the correct procedure to take. It is the victim who should seek legal advice (and if anything comes out of it, you'll be notified). See, suspicion alone won't do much for a case without compelling evidence.

If you investigate on your own and find something suspect (only then I would consult with an authority before taking action; whether it's the police or a lawyer). If you want to speak with someone beforehand, it won't hurt either.