Facebook posts extolling the virtues of wine or corporal punishment in parenting. Insulting your spouse via repeated and frequent text messages and e-mails. Leaving a scathing voicemail, a la Alec Baldwin, on the home phone voicemail. Posting pictures or videos of a night of hard partying with your new love interest. Bragging about your luxury vacation, or income, on your page. Tweeting thoughts on your ex's meeting with misfortune and injury. Routine check-ins at questionable times and venues.
In a divorce or Family Court case, your credibility is everything.
You are under the microscope in the long-term. These matters are fact-specific and all about the judge's "feel of the case," essentially, the impressions formed of you. In a custody case, your fitness as a parent is key. This includes your attitude towards the other parent. Income or the ability to earn or pay support is often a central issue in a divorce, child support, or alimony case. Social media posts can contradict litigants' sworn financial disclosure attesting to their income, assets and liabilities.
A recent study by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers showed more than 80 percent of divorce attorneys have used social media posts as evidence in divorce cases. I've seen a court find that the Defendant violated his Restraining Order and committed a jailable offense given his Twitter feed about the ex getting hit by a truck. During cross-examination at trial, divorce attorneys revisit each and every insulting, abusive text. They append those poolside social media pictures to motions for enforcement of child support. They can and will play the unflattering voicemail for the court. This evidence can be very damaging.Be very careful of social media and evidence in this digital age. If you don't want the judge to consider it in your case, don't e-mail it, pin it, post it, text it, tweet it or leave it in a voicemail. It's up for grabs. Your privacy settings will not save you.