Social media has changed the way we communicate with each other and share our lives. It provides a platform to learn more about your family, friends, co-workers, employers, and even your significant other.
In a divorce case, however, your social media activity can be considered as evidence which can be used against you or both parties to affect property division, spousal support, child custody, child support, and more.
The following are some of the ways social media affect your divorce:
- Posts about lavish spendings –
- If one party is attempting to hide assets in a divorce, but posts about the assets – the posts can be used to show the existence of the asset.
- If one party is trying to say they don’t have income to pay child support, but they post pictures of costly purchases, such as jewelry, cars, vacations, trips to the strip club, the judge could extrapolate income based on assets displayed.
- A party asking for spousal maintenance, but they post on social media with designer suits, clothes and purses, expensive nails, hair, vehicles, etc. can show a judge that perhaps the requesting party does not need extra money from the other spouse.
- Negative comments from one parent to the other –
- If one party repeatedly posts negative comments about the other, this type of negative behavior could make it seem that the attacking spouse is attempting to alienate the children or defame your spouse.
- Posts about partying, drinking, or recreational drug usage –
- A spouse who posts pictures of a child with an alcoholic beverage, checks into a bar or a club, or posts pictures of himself/herself partying while he/she is supposed to be supervising the children, can be presented as evidence of an unfit parent.
- Posts about a new romantic interest -
- Changing your profile to single or in a new relationship can help establish your spouse’s claims of infidelity or show the court you are spending money on someone who is not your spouse.
- Creating a profile on an online dating site prior to your divorce being finalized is not wise. Not only does it show evidence of potential cheating, but most people have a different online persona compared to who they really are. If someone is caught saying something different on a dating site than is said in court, it may cause damage in a divorce case.
At Camille Borg Law PLLC, we usually advise our clients to avoid social media until your divorce is finalized. While it may be tempting to delete all of your accounts and remove your online presence, once litigation starts, social media becomes evidence. So, in essence, deleting accounts could be seen as destroying evidence, which results in more legal troubles. However, one can tighten the privacy settings to not share to the public and can even deactivate the social media accounts without deleting them.
If you are interested in filing for divorce in McKinney, TX, request a consultation with our experienced divorce lawyer at Camille Borg Law PLLC today.