A recent article in Time Magazine about Facebook and divorce reported some not too surprising findings about how a divorcing party’s facebook posts lead to further legal troubles. (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1904147,00.html?cnn=yes)
It is a common practice to post details of one’s life on a website such as Facebook or Myspace along with personal information such as relationship status, photos and, apparently, comments about divorce proceedings. What divorcing posters (and postees- those who are being posted about, that is) need to keep in mind is that this public information may find its way in front of the judge who will decide how you share time with your children, how support will be paid and what assets and liabilities need to be divided.
During the high emotion throes of a divorce, it may be tempting to update your facebook status with a rant about what a bad person your soon to be ex is or to send a post into Twitter cyberspace notifying all interested and non-interested persons of this information. But, before doing so, keep in mind that, if it can be seen by the public, it can be printed by your spouses attorney. For those of you thinking, so what, bear in mind that the Judge deciding who will promote the relationship between the children and the other parent is likely not to see this as harmless venting. This is especially true where there are children who are old enough to access a computer and savvy enough (as more and more young children are these days) to search and find such posts. Venting and losing your cool during an emotionally stressful situation are understandable; posting your thoughts on a medium where they will be around for eternity and accessible to your children are not, at least not from the point of view of the person who may be called upon to preside over this aspect of your life.
What about the rest of the picture? It might be harder to convince a judge that you cannot pay that large amount of support when you are “tagged” in photos from a recent vacation or that there are no assets to divide when you inform the cyber-world of your recent purchase of a boat, motorcycle or car or that you didn’t commit marital waste (spend marital funds on another person or relationship) when there are photos of you and a significant other at a restaurant, out on the town or on that vacation mentioned above.
The bottom line is that what’s posted on the internet does not always stay on the internet. And, even if none of this surfaces in a divorce proceeding, your children may find it.
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