Facebook and Divorce
CNN ran an interesting article captioned “Divorce attorneys catching cheaters on Facebook.” An example given of social media in the courtroom was a lawyer using Facebook data to attack a parent’s credibility as a witness. The parent claimed he didn’t drink alcohol, but his Facebook account showed recent photos of him drinking beer. Not good, because credibility is everything in court.
In our Oregon divorce and family law practice, we see social media come up in cases with increasing frequency. People freely post personal information online that they might be reluctant to give up as part of a deposition. One case involved an online dating site where a party had posted income information, and was then dismayed to see it at the child support hearing. Our suggestion is make sure your privacy settings are such that you aren’t giving away information that you wouldn’t want to freely disclose in your court case. Better yet, don’t disclose personal information that could affect your case, because the records could be obtained by court order.
