Can employers retrieve deleted text messages from your personal phone without your consent?

It's a very vague and rather random question. I cannot think of a way that an employer could get a court order to retrieve deleted text messages from an employee's phone without an active court case. It's hard to imagine an employer reaching a point where they wanted to go through the steps to do this. An employer could ask to see text message or other information on an employees phone. In most cases, if the employee did not cooperate and the employer thought they had a reason to need to see this information, they would simply fire the employee. So long as there is no employement contract, binding policy, or collective barganing arrangement which prohibited the action, the employer wold be allowed to terminate the employee's employment. This is usually what would happen in a situation where an employer was worried enough about what sorts of texts the employee was sending to feel the need to review them.

They would generally need a court order. however, if it is an employer plan and if the arrangement provides for them to access such things, then the fact that you consider it your personal phone may not apply.

There are new federal laws on the way about these issues, involving employers requesting access to personal email accounts and Facebook, prohibiting that activity. I agree, how would the employer, without impersonating you retrieve the text messages form the phone company unless it issued a subpoena. without knowing more information, or why it is important to you, or whether the company owned the phone and allowed you to use it as part of your benefits, this is difficult to answer