Facebook and Divorce

Facebook and social networking are rapidly impacting divorces.  It is not uncommon for information posted on Facebook to be used as evidence in divorce and custody matters.  I was recently interviewed on television on this issue.    People post information on Facebook that shows infidelity or can be used to reflect on parenting skills.  Worse yet, other people can post information on someone’s wall and in the blink of an eye, it is distributed to all of the person’s Facebook friends.

A hypothetical example is a married man meets a woman in a bar.  The woman looks him up on Facebook and posts a simple message like “Had a great time last night, can’t wait to see you again.”  Within minutes after the posting, the man’s wife gets telephone calls about the posting from Facebook friends who read the posting.

Facebook doesn’t cause people to cheat on their spouse, It does make it easier to contact former friends and to rekindle old romances.  It also causes problems keeping new relationships secret.  The discovery of a new relationship that surfaces on Facebook may result in a divorce but it isn’t fair to blame Facebook for the end of the marriage.

While you may discover information on Facebook that indicates your spouse has cheated, an experienced divorce attorney can help you understand how this information will relate to a divorce or other court proceeding.