How Social Media Impacts Your Divorce
In the age of social media, any body can over share their personal and professional lives. Be careful on how social media impacts your divorce. Be cautious whether you post status updates on Facebook or tweets on Twitter, or job qualifications and experiences on professional sites like LinkedIn. Your spouse and his/her attorney will watch every post.
Social media content has become a reliable and powerful evidence in 21st century divorce cases. According to a 2010 survey of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML), 81 percent of the country’s top divorce attorneys has witnessed a spike in the number of cases using social networking evidence within the last five years. Sixty-six percent of those lawyers say that Facebook is the number one social network site from which evidence is culled for divorce proceedings.
The entire point of monitoring your social media content is to maintain a positive image in the court’s eyes so you can divorce with less headache. Most of the advice is about using good judgment; when in doubt about posting an item on social media, don’t do it.
The following shows how social media impacts your divorce:
Don’t post certain photographs
A picture is worth a thousand word. if you post photographs of yourself smoking anything, drinking or committing any other wild action, this will raise red flags in court. Provocative photos are also out of the question. Even more innocent pictures can make you look bad. if you are petitioning the court to lower your spousal alimony payments, yet you were showing off your new boat, luxury car or a second house on your social media account, you would lose credibility.
Keep quiet about legal matters
There are plenty of topics not to reveal about your life on the internet, and that includes your divorce or custody battle. Never comment on the status of the proceedings, a lawyer, judge or spouse.
What are you saying about your children?
Children, especially minors, are the most vulnerable in divorce. if you are fighting for yours, yet post questionable things about them on the web, you have decreased your chances of winning. Stay away from mentioning that you have issues with a stubborn child. Don’t lie about being childless on a dating profile site. Do not post photos of your Saturday night outing with friends when you were supposed to watch your children that same weekend.
Be careful of who your “friends” are
Even if you take care understanding how social media impacts your divorce, your friends may not. You may have maintained safe comments on your news feed and published G-rated photographs, but your friends can still tag you in rather damaging photographs on their timelines. Even if you lock your account, giving only access to your friends, a “friend” can grant your spouse access to search for incriminating evidence.
Change your password
Divorce drives individuals to do things they may not normally out of spite. Retaliation is one of the most common action divorced couples encounter. People want to get revenge to make your pain subside and bring the opposite party down. if your spouse knows your accounts’ passwords, change them immediately. if you don’t, he/she can get into your account and sabotage your profile, news feed or album to ruin your reputation.
Anderson & Ferrin conscientiously represents each case with the client in mind. We understand that family cases are emotionally charged. We treat our clients like family and earnestly discuss cases with them. Our areas of practice include divorce, child custody and paternity, child support, domestic violence injunctions, adoptions and guardianship. Our attorneys are in good standing with the Florida Bar.
Call Anderson & Ferrin at 407-412-7041 for your Free Consultation Today! We practice in the Orlando area.
