Family Law

With the advent of social networks such as twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc., many people have made their private lives very public.  For some these social networking outlets have become online journals of the most intimate nature.  Legal commentators including totaldivorce.com are starting to identify these social networks as a source for trouble come divorce.

Divorce itself is a concept as old as that of marriage. From the early records of divorce up to now, when a man and a woman decide to nullify their marriage, there are hundreds of aspects and findings within their actual divorce proceeding which culminate in the result of a legal and binding divorce.

One aspect, however, which is new to a divorce proceeding and is gaining momentum in its relativity is that of social networking sites.

In a recent article within Time Magazine it was noted: ?Social networking sites have become some of the most popular places on the Internet, but people are discovering ? sometimes too late ? that what they post online can be extremely damaging in a divorce.?

If you are filing for divorce, think twice about what you post on the web. Be careful tagging friends in photographs and writing comments about lawyers, judges or your spouse.

You should even remain cautious about who you request to be your friend or who you remove from your list of friends. This can all be traced, and may negatively affect your credibility and potential settlement of your case.

Even innocent comments taken out of context could be damaging.

Time?s article, which is about a couple whose divorce spilled into the online world of Facebook, is just one of the spotlights shedding light into a whole new realm of adulterous acts which can end up being very costly.

The article went into great depth about the wife (Tammie) and how she began contacting all of her husband?s (Patrick) Facebook friends. Tammie wanted to ensure that they knew he was married with children; an interesting fact to his ?friends? as he failed to mention either his marriage or his children in his online profile.

This is an example as to why lawyers find Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites to be ?evidentiary goldmines.? These prominent sites are often filled with incriminating photos, comments, confessions and links to new significant others.

As for the whole issue of privacy, many people wrongly assume their social networking pages are private, viewable only to chosen friends and connections.

In reality, it?s not difficult for a former spouse, friend or investigator to uncover the ?private? information, resultant in potentially damaging consequences in court. Those digital footprints last forever and can cause unending harm.

It is key for anyone who uses these sites to remember to not put anything on their social networking pages which they wouldn?t want their estranged spouse, divorce attorney and potentially a judge to see.

Search engines are continuously indexing comments, photos, blogs and all the rest, making what is meant to be private, public information.

Please click here for the original article from total divorce's the divorce blog.

Please be sure to visit www.hardinglaw.com, the website for the law firm of Harding & Associates, for more information on California family law.