Facebook Profiles Swaying Divorce Cases

Social media websites, such as Facebook, contain a bounty of personal information. Thus, according to CNN.com's "Divorce Attorneys Catching Cheaters on Facebook," these websites have become an effective tool for divorce attorneys, who are looking to dig up dirt on their clients' spouses.  Divorce lawyers can easily access one's Facebook page.  For example, lawyers use websites like Flowtown.com, on which they can type in an email address and subsequently view various social media profiles; or, the attorney could find one's profile by hiring a private investigator.

Once attorneys gain access to a profile, they scroll through wall posts and personal information, read status updates, and sift through photos to find any kind of evidence that catches the client's spouse in a lie.  Mutual friends of the spouses are usually the most valuable resources.  Most often, while the couple is going through a divorce, they de-friend each other, but they forget about their mutual friends.  These shared friends "can play detective" and obtain information from either spouse's profile.

As a result of "social media stalking," divorce attorneys are able to poke holes in the credibility of the client's spouses.  With the information that an attorney retrieves from a social media website, whether it be uncovered affairs or the exhibition of unacceptable behavior online, the lawyer could sway the outcome of the entire trial.  

According to a professor of psychology at Bridgewater College in Massachusetts, people do not see the harm in displaying information online because they believe that no one would ever really look at it.  Nevertheless, the number of divorce cases that utilize social media sites have spiked over the last five years.  In order to protect one's information, one must become familiar with privacy settings.

For those who use Facebook and are going to be involved in a divorce or custody battle, double check your profiles, edit them, tighten their privacy, be careful of what you post, and take heed of Facebook friends who might not truly be your friends.  Or, to undoubtedly ensure the protection of your personal information, it would be easiest to just deactivate your Facebook account.