Emojis: We’ll see you in court

Abstract

Many litigators espouse brevity in communications, recommending that emails be responded to as succinctly and simply as possible. For instance, if an email simply warrants “yes” as a response, renowned mediator and arbitrator Hugh Hackney would respond with “Y”. If an email warrants thanks, he would respond “T”. Brevity in the modern era progressed from abbreviations to the use of the ubiquitous emoji. Just as words, facial expressions and hand gestures are open to more than one interpretation, emojis can also be open to interpretation – and may even warrant use of a communications expert at trial.