UPDATES IN MICHIGAN FAMILY LAW

Internet & Social Media Safety | Protecting Children & DV Victims

Internet safety is on my mind, whether it's protecting children or my clients from online predators, or protecting them from hacking to read emails or see browsing history,whether it's cyber-bullying or invasions of privacy.

Here is a link to all of the Blog posts on Updates in Family Law that deal with Internet issues that may affect divorcing families and vulnerable children. Use them as needed to help yourself, your children, your clients or your friends from falling prey to online victimization. http://tinyurl.com/o4mw2v6

There are many agencies available to help women and their families to escape and/or to prevent family violence. See, for example:

Facebook | A Family Lawyer's Perspective

A family lawyer in a case involving fault or significant flaws that can negatively impact a child custody proceeding loves to have access to Facebook archives. These can be a goldmine of evidence. The first thing a good family lawyer will do is to advise new clients to stay off Facebook and other social media sites--or at least not publish comments that should remain private.

Subscribers and other frequent readers of Updates in Family Law will not be surprised to learn that there are over 40 posts (of about 1100 since 2006) concerning Facebook. All of them may be reviewed here. [NOTE: It's easy to subscribe and receive an email with link to all new posts. Just insert your email address in the box in the upper left-hand corner above.]

Two important blog posts should be reviewed: Facebook | Divorce & Total Recall and Facebook & MySpace | Is it ethical for lawyers tell clients to change, delete? The latter discusses the issue of spoliation. Richard Gould-Saltman, of the Gould-Saltman Law Offices in Los Angeles, California expressed provocative discussion of whether spoliation applies to Facebook and other social media pages. In fact, a Tennessee statute discussed in this post, prohibits post-filing changes (including deletion) of social media pages.

YikYak | Latest Social Media Tool Spews "Hate-Mail" & Cyberbullying

"If you don't have anything nice to say about someone, don't say anything at all." [Attribution: My grandmother & likely yours as well]

Cyber-bullying is out of control. The New York Times reports on Yik Yak the latest App used on college campuses to bully, harass, shame, embarrass and (yes) threaten coeds, college professors and others. Yik Yak allows users of the app to post anonymously--without a profile. Yik Yak is sorted by small geographical spaces (for example, a college campus).

When showed what some of the students sitting in a large lecture hall had been texting about her during the lecture, Margaret Crouch, professor of philosophy at Eastern Michigan University said,“I have been defamed, my reputation besmirched. I have been sexually harassed and verbally abused. I am about ready to hire a lawyer.”

Court Battle over Twitter Subpoena

First they came for the email account content, then the Facebook content, and now lawyers are after Twitter content. The question becomes "Who owns the Tweets?" Although this case doesn't involve family law issues, the prospect remains that the decision could impact family law cases.

Twitter says that its users own their tweets, and all that personal information. The court says Twitter does, and should hand them over when subpoenaed. This week Twitter has filed an appeal to New York Supreme Court, the second time it's filed a motion in this case.

Bottom line: Twitter says that it makes it clear in its terms of services that users own their content and they have "a right to fight invalid government requests," i.e. subpoenas.

Facebook & Dating Websites: Judge Orders Couple to Exchange Passwords

In what may become a controversial decision, a Connecticut judge has ordered lawyers representing a divorcing couple to exchange passwords to their clients’ Facebook and dating websites.

As reported in the Forbes blog The Not-So Private Parts, Judge Kenneth Schluger ordered the password exchange in the divorce of Stephen and Courtney Gallion. The judge's September 30 order states that the exchange should be carried out by the lawyers, and neither spouse may post messages purporting to be the other.

Stephen Gallion is asking for full custody of the parties' children. He believes, according to his  lawyer, Gary Traystman, that the social networking accounts will provide evidence about Courtney Gallion’s ability to take care of their children.