Divorce and Child Custody: Questionable Online Activity May Haunt You

March 15, 2012

For too long many people have used the Internet for the excessive release of personal information, not all of it flattering. Such controversial information may not reflect well on a husband or wife who is party to a divorce, especially when custody of a child is at issue.

In particular, social-media websites like Facebook and Myspace or dating sites like eHarmony and Match.com may contain written or photographic proof of a spouse's questionable thoughts, opinions, behavior or traits potentially harmful when in a divorcewhere good character or judgment is of concern. For example, evidence of partying, drinking, drug use, extramarital activity or other lifestyle choices that may not be conducive to good parenting may hurt a spouse's chances at child custody or generous visitation.

The GallionDivorce

For these reasons, spouses are starting to request access to their husbands' or wives' personal social-media content as potentially relevant evidence in divorce cases. This exact question was recently raised in a Connecticut Superior Court divorce matter.

In September 2010, Judge Kenneth Shluger orderedthe lawyers for Courtney and Stephen Gallion to "exchange the password(s) of their client's Facebook and dating website passwords." He specifically said that the Gallions were not personally to be given the passwords by their attorneys.

Confusingly, he said that neither spouse "shall visit the website of the other's social network and post messages purporting to be the other." This could be interpreted a couple of different ways, but it appears to mean just that they may not impersonate each other online (because of the conjunction "and"), not that they could not look at the pages through their lawyers.

The press and legal community are discussing the judge's order in Gallion at length. Some commentators are concerned that the judge broadly let the parties sign in and look at everything, as opposed to only allowing access to things about a particular subject or relevant to a narrow issue. This raised further discussion about how the more tailored approach would be handled. For example, should the judge or the owning party review the account and decide what should be revealed to the other side?

Much was also made of the question whether the judge's order violates Facebook's terms of service that ask users not to share their passwords with others. Facebook asks its users not to share their passwords with other people or allow anyone to access users' accounts. Facebook also asks that a user "not solicit login information or access an account belonging to someone else."

If you are contemplating divorce, discuss your situation with an experienced family law attorney. Be sure to ask your lawyer about concerns you have about your or your spouse's social-media pages and how this is being handled by your state's courts.

Article provided by Dolan & Mayerson, PC
Visit us at http://www.dolanlawoffice.com