Over the last five years or so, evidence from Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, blogs and other social media has been used in all types of family law cases. Social media evidence is now routinely used in divorce cases, alimony reduction/Lepis hearings, child support hearings, and child custody visitation disputes. Sometimes the evidence obtained from social media websites can be critically important. In other cases it is just nonsense and a waste of time. One of the most important parts of family law is what is the person's lifestyle. Social media can be used to establish a person's spending habits, any irresponsible behavior by a parent, or the failure of a party to make a good faith effort to find a job.

How you conduct yourself on social media websites can often hurt your family law case. Many New Jersey divorce lawyers are net-savvy, and they will search your Facebook status or other social media sites to try to obtain evidence in your case. Social media evidence is often used in visitation and child custody cases. Therefore, if you are in the middle of a nasty custody battle, or if your ex-spouse is suffering from the parental alienation syndrome (PAS), then you should refrain from using social media websites altogether. If you post any material that is questionable, then rest assured your ex-spouse will retrieve and try to use it against you. Why waste more money on legal fees to contest social media evidence?

The use of social media is a very hot topic in family law now. Did your husband's new girlfriend post a new Twitter about just receiving a new gold necklace from him? The court could consider this type of gift to constitute the dissipation of marital assets. Did your wife inform the court that she has absolutely no work skills and she can't find a job? However, her LinkedIn profile indicates that she has many job skills, and that she is now pursuing many different types of interviews and jobs.

Many people who are getting divorced recklessly put their life out there in cyberspace through Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter and other forms of blogging. Some typical types of social media postings that impact family law cases are as follows:

It is important to emphasize that there is a very good chance that while you are posting this information on the net, your ex-spouse and her lawyer are printing out this information. Moreover, your ex-spouse will try to use this information at any trial.

The main lesson to learn from these types of disasters is that you should carefully consider the potential legal ramifications before you post any information on the net or on a social media site. Moreover, you should refrain from commenting about your spouse, her lawyer, or the judge on the internet. Finally, you should not post any pictures of any type of content that could be used against you in family court, and this includes partying, gifts to or from a new girlfriend, or places you should not be. If you are fighting for more time to spend with your kids, and if your ex-wife digs up Facebook postings of you at the strip joint or doing beer bongs at Cancun, then your case could be "nuked." This type of evidence could haunt you for years to come.

What type of information or pictures you post online could ultimately be used as evidence against you in the family court. I have diligently searched the net and found many examples wherein social media postings have had an important impact on the divorce case. These examples are as follows:

If you are getting a divorce then you should log off any social media websites. You are putting your social life out there for the world to inspect. If you are engaging in any type of questionable behavior then you shouldn't be putting it online, or someone like me might try to use it against you. You should be very aware of what you are posting online. Regardless of your reasons for using Facebook, you should be prepared to have whatever information you post online used against you in any situation. Moreover, it is advisable to use your privacy settings, and to use discretion if you use any social media sites. It is also advisable for you to search your own social media sites. Finally, you should also conduct your own search to see what kind of information about you is already published on the web. In my experience social media evidence is being used more and more in the family courts. In the majority of the cases, the courts will not place much weight on social media evidence. However, there are scenarios wherein the use of social media evidence can be disastrous to your case.