Ride the Lightning

YOUR CHEATING HEART: CAUGHT BY E-Z PASS

August 13, 2007

Some days you don’t have to go looking for a blog post. This was one of those mornings. Like the lemmings they are, newscasters this morning all seem to have glommed on to a facet of electronic evidence previously known mostly to divorce attorneys and their experts: the probative value of the E-Z pass. I woke up to this story on the Today show, heard it again on the radio on my way to work, and found it yet again in my Inbox courtesy of Virginia Lawyers Weekly.

If you use E-Z Pass or its equivalent on your way to or from your paramour, beware. E-Z Pass information is now regularly sought by divorce attorneys in those states where adultery may make a difference in how assets are divided. In child custody cases, it is often used to show how seldom a parent may be around while visiting their significant other, off drinking with buddies, gambling at the racetrack, etc. There are twelve states in the Northeast, South and Midwest that are part of the E-Z Pass system. Seven of those states will provide E-Z Pass information in response to court orders in both civil and criminal cases, including my own state of Virginia. Four more, including New Jersey and Pennsylvania, will provide such information only for criminal cases. West Virginia does not currently have a policy.

If a husband thought he’d save a little time getting that E-Z Pass and then used it to visit his honey, he may have sealed his fate in court. You can almost hear Carrie Underwood singing the words of a wronged woman in one of her most famous songs: “Maybe next time he’ll think before he cheats.”

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