Why you should be careful about social media during divorce

Divorce and child custody disputes can understandably be emotional times. In our evolving culture, it is becoming more common to share our lives through social media. It is not surprising for middle aged adults to have Facebook pages, Twitter handles and even send Vine messages to keep people in the loop.

Indeed, many of the posts and statements you see on social media are about joyous events; birthdays, graduations and pay increases are common. But in bad times, we are apt to share those as well. For people going through child custody disputes and divorces, there can be problems with too much sharing.

Essentially, when you go on extreme rants about your soon-to-be ex-spouse or significant other, it is important to watch what you say. Posts on social media are becoming increasingly popular as fodder to be used in court, and can sometimes be used as a basis for a restraining order. So a particularly inflammatory post could be harmful in your case; even if you were just blowing off steam.

The common rule of thumb in custody and divorce cases is that if you don’t want a judge to read something, don’t post it on the Internet.

You might think that deleting a post or taking down a Facebook page may get rid of incriminating posts, but that is simply not true. Social media posts are essentially marks of public record, and can be recovered by savvy researchers.

The preceding is not legal advice. If you have specific questions about your situation, an experienced family law attorney can help.