"Divorce attorneys catching cheaters on Facebook". uh oh.

[seabeyond]

Before the explosion of social media, Ken Altshuler, a divorce lawyer in Maine, dug up dirt on his client's spouses the old-fashioned way: with private investigators and subpoenas. Now the first place his team checks for evidence is Facebook.

Consider a recent story of a female client in her 30s, who came to Altshuler seeking a divorce from husband. She claimed her husband, an alcoholic, was drinking again. The husband denied it. It was her word against his word, Altshuler says, until a mutual friend of the couple stumbled across Facebook photos of the husband drinking beer at a party a few weeks earlier.

It was the kind of "gotcha moment" Altshuler knew would undermine the husband's credibility in court. His firm presented the photos to the judge, and the wife won the case in April, he said.

"Facebook is a great source of evidence," Altshuler said. "It's absolutely solid evidence because he's the author of it. How do you deny that you put that on?"


http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/social.media/06/01/facebook.divorce.lawyers/index.html?hpt=C2

[snooper2]

1. sweetness...

That's what happens when the attention seeking "look at me!" folks get carried away...

[seabeyond]

3. you know why i never got in trouble growing up and brothers always did

i kept my damn mouth shut. has always worked for me. lol

[quiet.american]

2. Facebook is the gift that keeps on giving in its capacity to really mess up people's lives.

But, as the article says, the wounds are self-inflicted.

[happyslug]

4. That is why I tell my clients to down load anything like that involving the other side

And to delete anything like that they may have. I also tell my clients about WHY and hopefully they tell me of anything on line that MAY be harmful to their case.

Now, most of my cases involve Custody and Visitation and are resolved without to much litigation. As a general rule Custody is rarely disputed and when it is, the burden is on the parent without custody to show why the child is better off with them then the parent who has Custody, in most cases both parents are viewed as equal and as such whatever is the existing custody arrangement stays the same.

There is more litigation when it comes to Visitation, for Visitation is an absolute right of a non-custodial parent unless such visitation will cause the child "Great Harm" (Not a little harm, "Great Harm", one time busies, broken legs or arm, hospitalization etc are NOT enough, unless there is something more then what is typical of most children). Thus is visitation is where you see most disputes and accusation of "Great harm". A pattern of injury can show great harm, exposure to excessive alcohol use can be great harm (Not an occasionally beer, but excessive use). Alcohol and drugs are biggest problem, followed by neglect (Abuse is rare, Children and Youth gets involved in most Abuse cases BEFORE such cases are involved in a Custody and Visitation Action).

My Space and other on line sites are a great source to get evidence of Drug or Alcohol abuse (most such people gladly brag about it on line). Neglect is generally tied in with such abuse (Basically it is rare to have an Abuse or neglect case that also does NOT include Alcohol or Drug Abuse, such cases occur but not as common as those that include alcohol and drug abuse).

Thus My space and other on line sites (including plain old E-mail and text messages) are a great source of evidence of such alcohol or drug abuse. Been used for years, ever since most people under 30 started to use on line services.

[murray hill farm]

5. How do they view the information....

on My Space or Facebook without having the "friend" status that allows viewing of the page?

[happyslug]

7. If it is on the Net you can get it.

As to the restrictions on "Friends" on My Space and Face book, how do you become a "Friend"? Often my clients still have friends who also friends with their ex, and get the information that way. I tell my client not to break any laws, but if it is public, download it. The problem is NOT data under heavy security (or under any type of Security), but data open to the general public. In many of my cases E-mails sent to my client, open forums etc. I have had people send downloaded copies of themselves to the other side. Thus most of this information is under no security and as such open to the general public. That is the information that hurts, not data under a strong security system, for then most "Friends" can NOT even see it, but data on forums open to the general public. Just a comment that Status is rarely an issue, we are talking about open forums and what ends up on them.

My advice to people is if you want to be private, stay off the net. I am surprise on the number of people who violate that rule and then put NO restrictions on who can have access, OR give access to my clients or members of my client's extended families.

[seabeyond]

6. so often i have met with the argument of privacy as someone puts something on net.

that boggles the mind. lol

a couple years ago my son told me he googled seabeyond and found all kinds of my posts. a good lesson for me. hadn't even thought of that, but has made me conscious of what i post.

a decade ago more or less, i watched brother go thru the whole custody, visitation thing. lasted a good decade, back and forth. what an eye opener that was. five years later, still dealing with repercussions.

[liberalhistorian]

8. If people are stupid enough to publicly post

shit like that, then it's their own damned fault. Period.