Step Away From the Computer. Facebook posts can be devastating to your divorce or custody case.

Hopefully you already know not to post photos of yourself driving drunk with the kids riding on your lap and steering the car.  But even seemingly harmless posts can cause headaches for you and your attorney. 

Are you claiming that you don’t get to spend enough time with your child?  Well, what if your ex shows up with your Facebook activity showing that during the 2 hours you had your child at the park for “quality time”, you posted or commented eight times and had three notifications that you were playing games?  Does that mean you’re a bad parent?  Nope.  Are you going to lose your kids or your case because it?  Probably not (unless your posting about an upcoming meth deal).  But you will have to pay for the time it takes your attorney to review the information, discuss it with you, and consider if the post or pattern of posts is serious enough to require a response.

Since no one wants to pay an attorney to deal with Facebook posts, here are some tips to make Facebook less hazardous during divorce and custody battles:

1.    Stop posting on Facebook.  It should be a read-only activity until your case is settled.

2.    Change your password, even if you don’t think your ex knows it or could guess it.

3.    Review your privacy settings and make them more restrictive.

4.    If you don’t want to stop posting entirely, then at least ask yourself if you want a judge, your mother, your child’s teacher to read this message before you post it.  No matter how restrictive your privacy settings, it will show up in the hands of your ex at the worst possible moment.

5.    Don’t post any photos of yourself in bars, with new significant others, or doing anything other than wholesome family activities.  If you are out drinking with friends, make sure they know you do not want to be in any pictures.  Period.  Just because you’re not tagged in the photo doesn’t mean that no one can see you and promises that “I’m not going to post this” can be forgotten.  If it’s a group shot of people who don’t get together often, do it in front of a neutral wall, without drinks in your hands, before everyone gets drunk.

6.    Don’t “check-in” at places and remove the location that lists where you are before you post a status. 

7.    Don’t brag about all the stuff you’re buying or trips you’re taking or people you’re seeing.

8.    Don’t discuss your ex or the legal proceedings in any way.  Definitely don’t post any court orders, police reports or custody evaluations online.  Yes, people actually do this.

9.    Don’t friend any new people unless you actually know them in real life.  It could be a fake profile or an old friend of your ex who is trying to gather information.

10. You probably set up your profile a long time ago.  Now would be a good time to go over it carefully to see what you might have written in the “about you” section, pages you might have liked, remove old apps that you gave permission to post to your timeline, etc.

 

Amanda Swanberg, Swanberg Law Offices, St. Paul, MN

swanberglawoffices.com

612-670-9626

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