We preach it all the time; it’s even in our Fee Agreements: Postings on Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram and other social media sites can be absolutely deadly. For example, a person who maintains her or she can’t work, in the context of a Child Support case, will make posts saying how much money they are making under the table.
In child custody, people bash and disparage their spouse or the other parent and then in Court complain about what that spouse says about them. With a properly laid foundation in Court, these posts are admissible into evidence.
Now, in a Pennsylvania court case captioned Nicolaou v. Martin, the Pennsylvania Superior Court held that statements made by a party, on Facebook, in a personal injury case, proved that the Plaintiff knew about the origin of her medical condition. Thereby, the Court concluded that Plaintiff had filed her lawsuit too late. For that reason, and based solely on the Facebook postings by the Plaintiff, her lawsuit was dismissed.
Whether the legal matter is a personal injury matter or a family law matter, those postings can come back to haunt litigants. Take down your past posts. STOP posting on Facebook and other social media sites; this includes photos and writings. We recently used photographs, posted by a Mother in a custody case, of her smoking blunts and making statements about how much she enjoyed her drug use. How ridiculous is that? Needless to say, she did not get Custody of her daughter.
If you are involved in a Support, Custody, Divorce, Alimony, Division of Property or any other matter, stop posting. That is our best advice.