When you’re going through a separation, it can be tempting to vent about your ex-partner on social media. However, it is important that you are mindful of what you say online.

Anything you post online is public and has the potential to affect your family law matter. It doesn’t matter how impressive your security settings are, the Court considers posts on social media to occur in a public forum. Not to mention, if you have even one mutual friend with the other party, anything you post could get back to them. This can affect any future relationship you may wish to have with your former partner, even as friends. This is particularly relevant if you have children and you will need to co-parent.

Your social media posts, comments, and even memes you share could be used as evidence by the other party. If you are involved in a parenting matter, what you share online could be used to demonstrate your attitude towards parenting, or your willingness (or unwillingness) to facilitate a relationship between the child/ren and the other parent, either of which could be detrimental to your case. The Court is seeing an increasing number of Facebook posts annexed to affidavits; you don’t want yours to be one of them!

Here are some tips for navigating social media during your family law proceedings:

Don’ts:

• Don’t post about your court proceedings while they are ongoing, or even when they are finished. You may inadvertently share something you shouldn’t. You especially want to avoid posts that include identifying information of any other parties to the case. It is an offence under the Family Law Act for a person to publish any account of family law proceedings that identifies a party to the proceedings, or any other person involved.

• Don’t disparage your ex-partner or their family. This will reflect poorly on you in court, and may influence the outcome of your matter. There have been cases where social media posts were used to demonstrate conflict and a lack of respect between parents, which resulted in one parent receiving less time with a child. In parenting matters, you should also consider the impact that any posts of this nature could have on your child, especially if they are old enough to have social media accounts and see the posts themselves.

• Don’t make posts when you are feeling angry or spiteful. You don’t want the other party providing the Court with any comments you make suggesting that you are using the court system to get back at them.

Dos:

• Be mindful of what you are posting about your child. Any posts about your child are directly relevant to your approach to parenting.

• Consider what you include in your financial disclosure. If you have stated that you are struggling to make ends meet, you shouldn’t be posting pictures of your brand new sports car or luxury holiday destination (though you should be disclosing it!).

• Before you make any post, especially in anger, give yourself some time to cool off. Come back and review what you said later, and only hit the post button if you would be happy for the Judge to see it in Court.