How your Social Media Accounts could be helping your Ex

With millions of people using various social media sites including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and many others, global communication has certainly advanced, and the world has become a smaller place. Social media has created a culture of oversharing, whether it is with a small-knit group of friends or essentially with the entire world through public posts.  While there are many advantages to these various tools, if you are involved in a legal dispute, they can do more harm than good.

Regardless of your privacy settings, when it comes to your divorce or other family matter, your posts, comments, tweets and even messages are fair game.  Parties to a divorce often request documents in what is called "discovery" and are permitted to request anything that is reasonably calculated to lead to admissible evidence.  In a custody case, for example, this could include all posts, messages and comments about your children, any romantic partners, activities, your living arrangements and anything that reflects on you as a parent. If you are sharing your activities, pictures and events with your social media network, they are likely to end up in evidence at your divorce trial.  Profanity you include in your posts could be used against you; previous statements you made could be used to impeach you; and marital status updates could be used to terminate your spousal support. Your social media accounts could build your opponent's case or make it stronger.

To avoid all of that, you should think twice before sharing or messaging.  If it could be used against you later in any proceeding or if you would prefer not to share it with your Ex, his/her attorney and the court, then don't post it.  Avoid using social  media to write negative comments about your Ex because that will only reflect badly on you in court. Sometimes, it is best to simply stay off of social media while your case is pending.  You may feel out of the loop, but you will avoid all the added trouble.

---