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Divorce and social media

On Behalf of | Sep 15, 2020 | Divorce

Divorce can be a complicated matter, and the stakes can be especially high. With that in mind, you want to do everything you can to protect your interests, as well as your children’s wellbeing. This means that you need to gather as much evidence as you can to support your position. A lot of this will take the shape of witness testimony, but there’s another place that could be a gold mine of evidence: social media.

Using social media evidence to your advantage

Nowadays, people are extremely open and honest online. This means that they often create posts that demonstrate questionable character, bad faith, and wrongdoing. These posts, if properly admitted into evidence, have the potential to help you with nearly every aspect of your divorce. It can show parental unfitness that supports your child custody arrangement, fraud when your spouse hides assets, and infidelity, which could sway a judge to side with you when it comes to an alimony request.

Social media can cut both ways

Of course, you might be on the other side of this issue, meaning that you need to defend yourself against damaging social media posts. You might also be able to counter with your spouse’s own social media posts. Just make sure that you’ve got your eyes and ears open when it comes to social media, and that you’re exercising extreme caution when using your social media accounts. It might even be best to avoid using social media altogether while your divorce is pending.

Be prepared to address evidentiary issues

Social media evidence isn’t automatically admissible in court. Instead, you have to make sure that the evidence was properly obtained and that a thorough foundation is laid to satisfy the court that the document you present is what you actually purport it to be. So, if you want to make sure that you’re as fully prepared for your divorce case as possible, then it might be beneficial to work with an attorney who can competently help you preserve and present evidence on your behalf.