Social media has become engrained in our everyday lives. It can help us remain connected with those we care about and those we’re interested in learning more about, and it can provide us with an outlet for emotions, both good and bad. Yet, your social media use can become a liability when you’re headed toward divorce given that your spouse will likely do everything they can to capture it and spin it in a way that’s hurtful to you and your position.
The uses of your social media posts can be broad, too. Your spouse might utilize them to show that you have more financial resources than you initially claimed, or that you engage in a lifestyle that’s not conducive to safe and effective parenting.
If you don’t check these allegations, then the judge might buy into them, putting you in a bad position as you litigate key divorce legal issues like spousal support, child custody, and child support. So, what can you do to get a handle on social media posts that are bound to come up in your divorce case? Let’s take a closer look.
Tips for dealing with social media evidence in your marriage dissolution
The first thing to recognize is that posting on social media isn’t going to do you any favors during your divorce. If anything, it’s going to give your spouse evidence to use against you. If it’s too late to prevent your spouse from getting their hands on questionable social media posts, though, then you need to know how to handle the situation. Here are some steps that you might be able to take to mitigate the impact of this evidence:
- Contextualize the post: A lot of social media posts are admitted into evidence without a lot of context, making you look bad. But you can submit other posts and present witness testimony that gives a realistic portrayal of your circumstances at the time the post was created. This can be especially helpful since we tend to only post the best parts of our lives on social media.
- Use the rules of evidence to your favor: Your spouse can’t just walk into court and hand your social media posts to the judge. They’re going to have to lay a proper evidentiary foundation to prove that the post is what they claim it to be. If they struggle here and you raise the right objections, then you might be able to block those posts form being admitted and used against you.
- Present contradictory evidence: Something doesn’t become true just because it was posted on social media. So, even if your spouse admits damaging posts into evidence, you’ll have the ability to present contradictory evidence that sets the record straight. Just be sure to have a good explanation for the post itself.
- Shift the focus: Even if your spouse admits damaging social media posts into evidence, you might be able to mitigate the harm they cause to your case by shifting the focus back onto your spouse’s behavior. Look for their own social media posts that you can use against them or utilize testimonial evidence to demonstrate how what they’re proposing in your divorce is unreasonable.
Know how to protect your interests throughout the divorce process
There’s a lot that can go wrong during the divorce process, and any single issue that’s mishandled can leave you with an undesirable outcome. So, before you head into your marriage dissolution, make sure you have a solid legal strategy aimed at protecting your short- and long-term interests as fully as possible.
