Have you considered the family law implications of your social media presence? Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media can provide a treasure trove of evidence in 21st-century family law. Consider the following best practices for social media use in separation and divorce. Your family lawyer will thank you.
- Consider stopping the use of social media. Alternatively, consider changing privacy settings, audience, and content.
- Do not post about your spouse, divorce, separation, or conversations with your family lawyer.
- Review and update your privacy settings. Make sure that settings are set to private and not public.
- Review and update your account’s reset email. Ensure that password is changed.
- Consider adopting a password application such as one password that will allow you to use strong and novel passwords on all sites.
- Update your password regularly.
- Be sure that your devices do not contain any surveillance apps or filters.
- Be cautious when accepting new friend/follow requests.
- Make your friends and followers list private and be aware of who your followers are.
- Unfriend shared friends or relatives or change settings so that your posts are not visible to them.
- If possible change settings so you can not be tagged. Be mindful of content posted by others that relates to you.
- Discourage friends and family from posting photos or other content relating to you, your children, and your spouse.
- Be mindful of the information that you post about your employment, travel, or purchases.
- Do not post about the litigation or the dispute.
- Carefully consider any posts you make about your children or child custody.
- Avoid geo-tags and check-ins for locations.
- NOTE: Nothing that you said or wrote before your separation or when you contacted a lawyer is permissible to destroy. Be sure to bring anything that may be relevant to the attention of your lawyer.
While we are on the subject of social media in separation, remember that it is not permissible to read your partner’s email, texts, Facebook messenger or other private communications. As tempting as it may be to gain access to this information, courts frown on this type of privacy invasion. As with everything in family law, it is important to have “clean hands.”In extreme cases, a spouse who has violated their partner’s privacy may be liable for the tort of intrusion upon seclusion.
