Sunshine Coast family law expert Pippa Colman’s social media tips

Family law expert Pippa Colman has given her guide to navigating social media in the midst of a family breakdown. Check them out here.

Pippa Colman, Founding Director of Pippa Colman & Associates Law Practice

A family court judge has said about social media “It is a veritable “Aladdin’s Cave” which parties and lawyers readily and regularly explore for evidence to be used in litigation.

Millions of people all around the world use social media every day, to communicate with friends and family and also to air their grievances and vilify people they once loved.

Social media evidence is used every day as a quick and effortless way of providing evidence of a disputed fact.

It also speaks volumes about the person who posts it.

Domestic violence orders routinely order parties not to make comments about them in social media.

Pippa Colman, Founding Director of Pippa Colman & Associates Law Practice

It is important for everyone to know that breaching a domestic violence order is a crime and the police will prosecute for breaches.

Here are some examples of what parties have relied on in court:

1. Photographs and videos of parents and children – to disprove the other side’s case that parents and children are estranged;

2. The same, but this time to show that the parents are putting the children in danger e.g. little children driving a car / sitting on the roof of a car as it is driving / giving them alcohol to drink;

3. Evidence of wild alcohol and drug fuelled parties;

4. Wild statements about a spouse’s threat to kill the other spouse / their new love;

5. Comments by a party denigrating the other party, the independent children’s lawyer, the Department of Child Safety and / or the court.

If you are on the receiving end of such posts and you want to use it in evidence, then speak to your solicitor.

Screenshot the post. Make sure the person making the post is identified.

Ensure the screenshot has the time and date stamp; same for the actual post. Save your screenshot where it is readily accessible by you (so you can hand it up to the judge if you are in court.)

Our tips:

1. Don’t communicate with your ex via Facebook. Do so directly e.g. via a communication app such as Our Family Wizard or via email;

2. Don’t post when you are angry;

3. Don’t mention your ex/ the proceedings online. If you don’t want a judge to read it, don’t post it;

4. Stay off line altogether;

5. Don’t delete your Facebook page; it is evidence, even if you don’t like it.

Pippa Colman is the founding director of Pippa Colman & Associates Law Practice.