As technology becomes more powerful and more accesible, all of us have surely benfitted. In many ways, technoogy has made our lives easier. However, there are dangers of today's technology and anyone finding themselves in divorce proceedings must be aware of how living in the Digital Age can impact your case. This will be the first of a multipart series examining how technology can be an issue in divorce, custody and domestic violence cases. This first installment will focus on the use of social networking sites. Future posts will touch on the use of e-mail, accesing computer based records / information, and domestic violence considerations.
Social networking sites such as Facebook have become increasingly popular. The ability to share thoughts, photos and other information can be a great benefit. But before you post a photo or describe your activities of the past weekend, keep in mind that you ar essentialy making your comments in a public forum. The risks of doing so are addressed in this recnet TIME Magazine article: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1904147,00.html?cnn=yes Family members, including your children, friends. co-workers and neighbors may now have access to what should really be private communications between friends. Imagine the impact on your children of seeing their parents dirty laundry aired on the Internet. do co-workers really need to know about your spouse's infidelity. New Jersey is a n-fault state. Absent egregious circumstances, marital fault has no bearing on the economic determinations of a divorce. Given that reality, it makes little sense to publicly vent. More damage can be done to your case by making personal postings than any potential benfit. Employers routinely check sociall networking sites and Google potential employees. I do too. I routinely do a Google search on opposing parties. I am amazed at the information I find and can later use in the legal proceedings. A picture of one party drinking while claiming to be in rehab on their own site is more persuasive than any argument I could make. A dating website contained the post of a client's spouse that stated s/he was "Not looking for a long term relationship or kids. I want to be free". This became a powerful tool in our cusotdy case.
Discsussing aspects of your case can erode the attorney-client privilege. Issues of strategy, settlement demands and results of litigation should not be released into cyberspace. Don't post anything that you do not want to be confronted with at a later date. As anyone who watches crime dramas on TV knows, anything you say (or post on the Internet) can and will be used against you.
Subscribe