The Impact of Social Media Activity in Family Law Disputes

There are both benefits and drawbacks associated with social media. On the one hand, these platforms allow you to connect with family and friends, to share the events of your daily life, and to express yourself in new and creative ways.

Then there is the flipside, whereby knee-jerk reactions can live in infamy and virtual unfriending can lead to real-world rifts in personal relationships. The negatives of these online platforms can become even more pronounced if social media activity is used as evidence during family law disputes.

Before you consent to staying connected 24/7 and posting your every thought, feeling, and physical location to social media, you might want to consider how such activity could come back to bite you down the road. When it comes to family law disputes, including divorce, child custody, and so on, your social media accounts could cause a lot of harm.

Hold Your Tongue
It’s almost impossible to truly erase something once you’ve posted it online, so it’s always best to think through potential consequences before you upload hilarious, drunken vacation photos or a long-winded rant about the evils of your ex. The courts may be understanding about the fact that people often speak without thinking in the online arena, or they might throw the book at you. Either way, you don’t want to provide ample reason for a judge to rule against you in divorce or custody proceedings.

Virtual actions can have real-world results. We all make mistakes and say things we don’t mean, and postings can certainly be taken out of context when presented in a courtroom setting. However, if you can’t control yourself and virtually hold your tongue, you have no business using social media leading up to family law disputes.

Turn Off Trackers
If you allow your social media apps to track you, get ready for everyone to know where you’ve been (and surmise what you’ve been up to). Locations trackers, check-ins, and other geolocation features offered through various social media accounts make it very difficult to cover your tracks. This isn’t to say that you’d necessarily lie in court, but you wouldn’t want an innocent meeting with an old friend to get blown out of proportion during a divorce case, for example.

Watch Out for Stalking
Even if you unfriend your soon-to-be-ex spouse and make your account private, you probably still have friends in common, and through careful stalking, your other half could get his/her hands on information posted to your social media accounts. Your best bet at this juncture may simply be to shut down accounts or at least refrain from posting anything that could prove harmful in court.

Those happy hour pics could have a negative impact on your child custody case. Location check-ins could show your location when you miss mediation or child visitation. A moment of frustration that results in a post about how your spouse will never gain access to your private accounts could have just the opposite effect.

Family law disputes have become more complicated in the digital era. Get the expert legal services you need to navigate these tricky waters by contacting The Gucciardo Law Firm now at 248-723-5190.