Social networking is all the rage. However, people involved in divorce family law disputes need to give very serious thought about whether social networking is a good idea while thier case is on-going. My best advice to anyone involved in any type of family law litigation is to shutdown all of your social networking sites. This means no Face Book, My Space, Linked In and the like.If the reasons are not apparent, then consider the following scenarios:
SCENARIO #1: Sally and Dick are separated and they are involved in a bitter child custody dispute. One of Sally’s best friends, Betty, assumes a new name, Ginger Smith, adopts as her photo that of Ginger off the old tv show Gilligan’s Island, and sets herself up on Face Book. Ginger then sends out a friend request to Dick who accepts the invitation. Ginger and Dick begin to exchange e-mails and during their correspondence, Dick makes numerous statements about his child rearing philosophy that will not look good for him in Court. Imagine Dick’s surprise when Sally and Dick’s lawyers exchange their witness lists immediately before trial and Dick sees that Ginger Smith is listed as one of Sally’s witnesses!
SCENARIO #2: Bill and Jennifer are involved in a custody dispute. Their son is 14 months old. Jennifer takes the child with her on a road trip to visit with her parents. On the morning of the trip, Jennifer takes a photo of the baby sitting in its car seat with three tall cans of beer arranged in the seat. Jennifer posts this photo on her social networking page with the caption The only way to take a read trip with a kid! Bill sees the posting and uses it at trial as evidence to bolster his contentions that Jennifer is an unfit parent.
SCENARIO #3: Jim and Joan are separated and Joan is under a court order to pay alimony to Jim. Joan files a motion with the court asking the court to reduce the amount of alimony she has to pay and in support of her motion, Joan says she has been laid off and has no job prospects in sight. Joan then posts a to her Twitter account and says she had a fabulous interview with XYZ, Corporation and has been offered a job. Jim sees the Twitter posting and introduces it as evidence at the hearing on Joan's motion to reduce her alimony payments.
Even though social networking can be fun, the risk that something you post will come back to haunt you is very real. Under the theory of better safe than sorry, I say, shut down the social networking if you are involved in a family law dispute.
