Social Media and Divorce

According to a recent CNN.com article, a growing number of divorce attorneys are turning to Facebook and other online social networking sites to find evidence for divorce cases.  For example, a family law attorney in Maine was told by his client that she suspected her husband, a former alcoholic, was drinking again.  Although he denied this charge, she stumbled across a picture of him drinking a beer at a recent party on Facebook.  

Another family law attorney in North Carolina found out that his client's husband was cheating with a female co-worker when he noticed a suspicious message posted by her on his Facebook page.  Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg recently acknowledged that privacy settings on the site were often inadequate and needlessly complex.  He went on to announce that the site would be taking steps in the near future to improve and simplify privacy controls.

Obviously such easy access to personal information and photographs can work both ways. Not only should clients look to social networking sites for evidence that can help their cases, they should also be extremely cautious about what they post themselves.