Family Law

Divorce Cases Hinging on Facebook?

By ckramer

A recent article on CNN.com is reporting that an increasing number of divorce cases are being determined based on content uploaded to the popular social-networking website Facebook.

In the article, several divorce and family law attorneys describe their experience with the evolving use of Facebook for undermining the credibility of one of the spouses.

One of the attorneys interviewed, Ken Altshuler, was quoted saying that: ?Facebook is a great source of evidence? It?s absolutely solid evidence because he?s the author of it. How do you deny that you put that on??

The kinds of revelations that Facebook and similar websites reveal in divorce preceding may not be what is expected at first glance.

It?s easy to imagine a foolish spouse posting pictures of him or herself in a romantic embrace with someone other than their spouse. This would clearly be important in the divorce proceedings, but almost any claim made by a spouse can have its validity attacked with Facebook.

The article describes a husband who claims to not have anger problems, but who also has ranting postings full of expletives. Facebook was even used to shed light on a husband and alcoholic who claimed to be sober when pictures of the husband drinking at a barbeque surfaced; as a result, the husband?s credibility with the judge was greatly undermined.

It?s also surprising to realize that it?s not just the information one of the spouses puts up that can affect the divorce.

When one woman suspected her husband of cheating she tried to check his Facebook profile for evidence. She realized she was blocked, or prevented from accessing the information he uploaded to Facebook. The woman then used Facebook to check the profile of the woman she suspected was having an affair with her husband. Under the other woman?s profile, the wife found romantic pictures of a vacation, including an embrace in front of an art gallery, and was able to confirm her suspicions both for herself and for the court.

When a married couple begins to enter the divorce proceedings, it is common for the partners to ?unfriend? each other on Facebook. What is frequently overlooked are the mutual friends. If a man is friends with his soon-to-be ex-wife?s best friend on Facebook, the wife?s friend can easily act as a spy for the wife. It is as if the husband is still giving the wife full access to his information.

The result of these revelations can greatly impact alimony payments and can even be determinative in child custody cases. Any information that is uploaded has the potential to surface in court. Facebook has changed its privacy settings several times which can lead to people having much less privacy than they think. If you chose to have a Facebook account, it is important to monitor it and understand how serious the potential ramifications may be.

Full post as published by The Divorce Blog on June 12, 2010 (boomark / email).