Social media makes it more important than ever to seek experienced legal counsel and avoid the risks of handling your divorce alone. With social media use in the U.S. projected to exceed 257 million by 2023, these platforms are a big aspect of life today. This inevitably makes them a big component in divorce.
How? Let’s say you claim tardiness with child visitations is a work issue or that you can’t afford a support request. Yet, your spouse’s divorce attorney has a list of Facebook check-ins and lavish lifestyle moments showing otherwise. Social media can damage your divorce case.
Social Media makes building a case against you easier because anything you post or are associated with can be used as evidence against you. To prevent yourself from being in this situation, contact The Law Firm and Mediation Practice of Alla Roytberg to learn how to manage your social media accounts during divorce.
Three Things Not to Do on Social Media During Divorce
Here is a basic do not do list that you can follow while you await consultation with your attorney:
1. Don’t Delete
Social media pages are one of the first things others, including your spouse’s divorce lawyer, look at in vetting you. Always consult your New York divorce attorney before deleting anything. Otherwise, you risk the court thinking you’ve tried to conceal information.
Instead of deleting your account, change all your passwords and then temporarily deactivate the account.
2. Don’t Post Negative Things
If you decide to keep using your social media accounts, don’t post anything negative about yourself or others, including photographs, posts, and videos of:
• New purchases, travel, dating, and so forth.
• Threats, accusations, and degrading remarks toward others or yourself.
• Anything, profane, suggestive, immoral, illegal, pornographic, or self-incriminating.
• Legal information about your case.
• Relationship status changes.
• Dirty laundry about your life.
The same goes for the comments you make on other posts. If your spouse or others post something negative about you, don’t engage. Take a screenshot of the posts for your divorce lawyer to review.
3. Don’t Leave Your Settings Unprotected
You’ll want to go in and adjust all your social media settings.
• Don’t let friends tag you.
• Don’t accept unknown friend requests.
• Don’t leave the check-in feature on.
• Don’t allow applications that track your location.
• Don’t leave any online accounts, such as Apple ID, linked; change all your passwords and set up new email addresses.
Divorce has long been a highly complicated and technical matter that’s best handled under the guidance of legal representation or expertise of a mediator. Social media’s almost unfettered accounting of our every action and thought significantly raises the stakes of going through divorce without an experienced and qualified lawyer or mediator. Contact the Law Firm and Mediation Practice of Alla Roytberg to fully ensure that none of your social media activities negatively impact your divorce case.