I need old messages for my court hearing

If the messages have been deleted, then the messages are no longer available.

If the messages were in an old backup and you still have that backup—and if you were not using iCloud for messages—then you might be able to restore the backup and look for the messages there, from prior to when the messages were deleted.

Restoring an old backup will revert everything on your iPhone to its settings and contents and state from whenever the backup was made.

If you were using iCloud for your messages, and the messages were deleted, then the messages are no longer available.

Hey daquira,

We see that you want to restore your old messages, and we'd like to help!

To restore your old messages, you'll need to restore your data from a backup that you made when you had the old messages. Here's how: Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch from a backup

We hope this helps!

Best regards.