The Internet and social media are creating issues in divorces

Are you the type of person who posts every detail of your personal life on Facebook? Do you tweet pictures of yourself engaged in questionable behavior? Do you check in on Foursquare everywhere you go? If so, be careful. What you post on social media sites has the potential to undermine your divorce.

It’s become common for divorce lawyers in Wisconsin and elsewhere to share their clients’ estranged spouses’ Facebook posts in the courtroom. Courts have allowed discovery of people’s private posts to Twitter. Things posted online are traceable and are never permanently deleted. More and more often in divorce, legal issues are created because of one spouse’s social networking activity.

Let’s take a look at how this can happen. A picture of you enjoying a ski vacation can undercut your claim that you unable to work due to disability and therefore need alimony. If there’s an issue of adultery in your divorce, you aren’t helping your case by updating your Facebook status to “in a relationship.” Posts about drinking or drug use or check-ins at adult clubs may bolster your ex-spouse’s claim that you are an unfit parent in a child custody dispute.

The bottom line is to be smart about what you post. Ask yourself if you would mind if the post or picture was projected on a big screen for the entire court room to see. If you haven’t been as discreet as you should have been in your past social networking, make sure to let your divorce attorney know so that any negative effects can be mitigated as much as possible.

Source: The Huffington Post, “Step Away From the Computer: Why Divorce And The Internet Don’t Mix,” Jason Marks, Oct. 15, 2012