Facebook may come back to haunt you when your marriage ends

When you’re married, you may decide to use Facebook for fun, just to connect with people. When you’re getting divorced, you may keep using it as both a way to share information and to vent. However, when you step into the courtroom, these posts could come back to haunt you.

For this reason, lawyers often caution clients not to use their various social media sites, if they can help it until the case is over.

As an example, take a look at it from the other side. Imagine you are trying to get child support from your spouse. He or she says there’s just not enough money to pay as much as you want or to pay at all. However, Facebook is covered in pictures from a trip to the Caribbean or status updates showing that your spouse loves the new BMW 5-Series.

These expensive purchases can be used as evidence of how much wealth exists. They could even lead to investigations if it appears your spouse lied about what he or she earns.

Another issue could be with the right to raise children. You may want to be solely in charge of this, but your spouse could turn to Facebook to show that you’re not going to be a good parent. With just a few posts, it’s easy to skew things so that it looks like you travel too much, party too much, or take on behaviors that could put the kids at risk.

Now, this may not be fully accurate, but it may only take a few Facebook pictures to sway a decision.

If you’re getting divorced, be sure you know what the law says about Facebook and how it may be used.

Source: The Huffington Post Canada, “How Facebook Can Be Used Against You in Divorce Court,” Christine Marchetti, accessed Nov. 27, 2015

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