With the advent of social media, online accounts are becoming more important in family law cases. From Facebook to Twitter, MySpace, Instagram, Vine, and other social media accounts, lots of useful information can be found online that can be helpful in a litigious divorce matter.
One social media account that can become particularly important is LinkedIn. On a LinkedIn page, parties often have lots of information that can be important in a divorce matter.
For example, parties will oftentimes list their entire job history online on LinkedIn. In their job history, parties will often list their dates of employment, their positions, and their job duties. Parties also oftentimes list their educational achievements and their certifications.
Some parties go on LinkedIn just to make contact with past and present business contacts. But parties might also job seek online and post their information online to seek employment. On social media accounts like LinkedIn, parties are generally incentivized to puff online to obtain new business, make new contacts, or obtain employment. This puffing can be potentially relevant as it relates to divorce litigation.
Even if a party is not puffing, the ability to obtain the hire job and educational history of a party online can be helpful. Before the advent of social media accounts like LinkedIn, presumably, the only way to obtain this information was through expensive formal discovery, including requests for production, interrogatories, subpoenas, or depositions. Now, this information can often be found online.
In a spousal support or child support case, the income of the parties can become directly at issue. The LinkedIn pages of the parties can contain information relevant to that determination in a divorce. In some cases, a party might have their resume uploaded as part of their online profile.
Of course, if you think a LinkedIn page might have useful information relevant to your case, it is important to speak with an attorney about the ethical and responsible ways in which to obtain this information. It is important as well that parties speak to their attorney if they are going through a divorce, about what they should put online or not put online. In some cases, a party might opt to pull their social media profiles while their divorce is pending.
If you need a divorce or family lawyer in Missouri or Illinois, Stange Law Firm, PC can help. You can call us at 1-855-805-0595 to meet with a St. Louis Missouri Divorce Lawyer.