Divorce Wisdom: Technology and Divorce

As we all know, the ability to access information is quick, cheap and everywhere. Naturally, this access can have a direct impact on your divorce. I cannot tell you how many people have learned about their spouse’s affair by stumbling upon an inappropriate e-mail on the home computer, reviewing a text message from the other man or woman after hearing the ding of their wife’s or husband’s Blackberry in the middle of the night, or by simply paying a little more attention to the cell phone charges on the monthly bill.

I am sure that most of us have said and done things we don’t mean and regret when we are particularly upset. Of course emotions run extremely high during divorce and even people who are typically mild mannered often lose their cool. Having said that, any e-mail, text, or voice-mail message you send to your spouse could be used as a potential exhibit against you in your litigation. The same thing is true for your Facebook or Myspace page. Your public postings on the internet are fair game to be used in court.

If you send your spouse a mean or threatening e-mail/text/voice-mail message, it could impact not only the issue of custody, parenting time and the settlement in general, if it is bad enough, it could also lead to a Personal Protection Order against you. If you have children, your ability to communicate directly with your spouse about your kids will be greatly compromised. In addition, an offensive transmission of any kind to your spouse will leave your judge with an impression about the type of person you are which may be remembered by him or her throughout your case. Therefore, the advice I give to my client’s is assume that every communication you have with your wife or husband during your divorce may be used as an exhibit in Court.

EDIT YOURSELF and take a boxing class if you need to blow off steam!