If you are involved in a family law matter, be careful what you send in a text message. It could end up as evidence in court.

A survey of the 1,600 family law attorneys in the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers found that 94 percent had seen a dramatic increase in the use of text messages as evidence over the last few years.

In the moment you are texting someone from your phone, it may feel like you are having a private conversation, but as soon as you hit "send" messages can be stored and traced. Even erasing the messages is no guarantee that they cannot be retrieved.

Text messages can be powerful evidence of infidelity, dishonesty or harassment in divorce cases because they are often spontaneous and emotional. And they provide written documentation, which is more convincing in court than he said/she said.

Text messages are not the only types of communications being extracted from cell phones to use in divorce cases. Email messages, call histories, and GPS and Internet search histories are also being used. Text messages are the most common, though, accounting for up of 62 percent of all evidence taken from cellphones.

Social media can also provide a treasure trove of evidence in marital breakups and other family law cases. Facebook, in particular, is often the source of evidence, as people increasingly use it to flirt, start affairs and bad-mouth their spouses.

The moral of this story: don't send any messages on your phone or on your computer that you wouldn't want a judge to read.

Source: MSNBC, "Divorce lawyers see more phone evidence, especially texts," Athima Chansanchai, Feb. 10, 2012