Your former spouse and their lawyer may access your social media accounts and use them against you in your divorce proceedings. More specifically, they may use your content and overall posting activity to call the New Jersey family court to question your character. Ultimately, this may alter how the court decides on alimony, child support, and child custody. Follow along to find out how your social media usage might affect the decisions on your divorce-related terms and how a proficient Morris County divorce lawyer at Graves Andrews, LLC can advise you.
Can my social media usage affect the decisions on my divorce-related terms?
Say, for instance, that your former spouse may have discovered your affair upon investigating your social media activities. While they may claim this to be the grounds of your divorce, they may not use your social media posts as support for an alimony, child support, and/or child custody order that works in their favor.
However, your social media usage may affect the New Jersey family court’s decision-making in other ways. For example, your former spouse may point to your excessive posting of partying and partaking in drugs or alcohol. With this, they may argue that you are an unfit parent with a lifestyle that does not align with the best interest of your shared child. Ultimately, they may fight for sole physical and legal custody over your shared child.
In another example, say that your social media accounts are flooded with photos and videos from your luxurious vacations, expensive purchases, and overall content that portrays your affluent lifestyle. Well, this may prompt your former spouse to argue that you have the financial means to pay a significant amount of child support. In addition, they may claim that they once held this same affluent lifestyle when they were still married to you. Therefore, they may ask that this established lifestyle be maintained through a sufficient alimony order.
What social media tips should I follow during your court proceedings?
If you have been active on social media for the years leading up to your divorce, it may be inevitable that your former spouse may find something to use against you. Nonetheless, it is still worth following the below social media tips during your divorce proceedings:
- Assume that your former spouse has access to your social media pages. This is even if you turn on privacy controls.
- Do not accept any new follower requests. This especially includes your former spouse’s close friends.
- Do not engage in any direct messages within your social media apps. This especially includes not discussing your divorce proceedings.
- Do not post anything on your social media pages for the time being. This especially includes not updating on your divorce proceedings.
- Do not let your relatives or close friends speak about your divorce on their social media pages. The same goes for any direct messages within their apps.
For your divorce proceedings, please consider contacting a talented Morristown family law attorney. Our team at Graves Andrews, LLC is ready and willing to assist you.
