It is important to give careful consideration to your social media and electronic communications such as texting and e-mails before filing for a divorce in North County or Carlsbad. It is normal to see social media posts and other public profile information presented in divorce cases these days.
The attorneys at Burke & Domercq review all available social media and online profiles for opposing parties. It helps us to gain an understanding of the other person’s mind, and often provides valuable evidence to support property division, location of hidden assets and other important insights. It can often help to catch opposing parties in a lie.
One of the first steps you take after filing for a divorce is to open your own bank account. Our clients usually establish new email accounts and other electronic and online personas as well. Be cautious when setting these up. Many ask common questions such as your mother’s maiden name, the street you grew up on or your birth month and year.
Your former spouse knows all of this information, and it is best to create a new set of answers to these questions that you alone will be able to remember or access. Change these answers to increase your own privacy and security.
Do you have former e-mail or messaging accounts set up on multiple devices such as an ipad, tablet, old phone or home pc that may have been turned off and stored? Go through old technology and remove access to these apps or programs.
However, it is not usually prudent to delete data such as photos, old social media and electronic communications as this behavior can be construed as destruction of evidence.
Parties often believe that their online activities are hidden. No matter how technically proficient you believe you may be it is increasingly difficult to prevent your former spouse, your spouse’s attorneys and other investigators from finding and accessing electronic data, private messaging and social media posts and activities.