Social Media Posts are Being Used as Evidence in Divorce Cases

Information posted on Facebook, Twitter, other social media sites, and email records can all be obtained as evidence in Colorado divorce proceedings. So if you are currently involved in a divorce action where there is potential conflict regarding parenting time, child custody, or the division of assets, be aware that damaging information collected from these channels can be used against you.

Twenty percent of divorces now involve obtaining information about the opposing party via an online social media site, and an increasing number of Denver divorce attorneys say they are seeing more and more evidence obtained directly from these networking channels.

Keeping this in mind, parties to divorce should seek to refrain from posting, and/or eliminate any information on social networking sites that could be damaging. For example, photos of you drinking could be used by your soon to be former spouse to substantiate their claim that your parenting time should be limited to due your inclination towards over imbibing during your parenting time.

Be careful of what you post to your online networking sites and prevent online evidence from letting you present your case in a positive manner.

If you are involved in a Colorado family law matter and need to speak with a divorce attorney, call us at The Harris Law Firm, 303 515 5000 to schedule a consultation today

The Complexity of Famliy Law Cases for the Non-Traditional Family Continues

Per the lawyers at The Harris Law Firm, Colorado’s family law team:

Until we have laws that govern same-sex marriage, the family law cases associated with these non-traditional families is going to continue to be highly complex.

A recent decision by the Texas Court of Appeals illustrates the complexity of one particularly ugly gay divorce. The partners lived in Houston but they traveled to Canada in 2003 to get married and then they registered as domestic partners in California in 2005. Because of the restrictions on gay partnerships and parentage in Texas, they arranged for a surrogate in California to bear their child (with sperm donated from one of them). Prior to the child’s birth they obtained a pre-birth declaration of parentage under the Uniform Parentage Act, which is lawful in California. A pre-birth parentage judgment is one of those newly-created legal devices to establish parentage for gay male couples using a surrogate,with both men designated as legal parents even though only one of them has a biological connection to the child. The non-standard nature of this proceeding has become the subject of legal conflict, now that the couple has broken up.

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The California parentage judgment expressly stated that both men were legal parents (and the surrogate would not be a parent) and the underlying documents confirmed that the two men were entitled to share custody of the child. This was not controversial when the couple was together, but now, one of the issues in their dissolution proceeding is whether that implied “finding” of joint custody would be binding on the parties now that they have broken up. The bio-dad took the position that the pre-birth decree wasn’t binding at all, and that even if it was binding the custody determination was not enforceable. Fortunately the state Court of Appeals disagreed with the bio-dad, and confirmed the validity of the California judgment and its implied custody finding.

Straight couples have their share of nasty break-ups, for sure. Thus, what is “gay” about this battle is not its nastiness, but rather, the legal complexity of the partnership and parentage arrangements and how those complexities play out in the dissolution process. And that is what makes this case both instructive and newsworthy.

Rather than simply getting married in Texas, having kids the old fashioned way, and then getting divorced and having a custody battle in their home town, these guys traveled first to Canada and then to California to legalize their partnership. They hired a surrogate to bear their child and used an unconventional (but lawful) court proceeding in California to establish themselves as legal parents. Now, they may find themselves unable to obtain a dissolution of their partnership or marriage in their home state, since Texas courts have refused in the past to “honor” same-sex marriages by divorcing the partners. And, as this case demonstrates, the bio-dad was able to raise the atypical nature of the parentage judgment in an effort to deprive his ex-partner of shared custody of their child.

This case is a sad illustration of the harmful consequences of what may be the worst aspects of anti-gay bias: discrimination in the form of legal complexity! But ideally, in the future all states will allow same-sex couples to get married and to parent children, and all states will adjudicate the inevitable dissolutions in the same manner as the straight ones. There will still be painful high-conflict divorces, but at least the legal complications of the gay divorces will not be so messy — or so legally complicated.

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Harris Family Law – Cooperative Divorce Law

Cooperative divorce law is a new alternative to the traditional court fight. It is a more practical way to help reduce the expense and frustration that normally is associated with going to court. It also provides an inexpensive, efficient, and unique opportunity for divorcing parties to be able to negotiate with one another in a conductive setting for compromise and settlement.

The cooperative divorce approach is similar to collaborative law in that it stresses settlement via the use of informal 4-way meetings with both parties and their lawyers. The parties are asked to sign a Cooperative Divorce Law Participation Agreement in which they commit to the following:

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* An emphasis on civility.

* Avoidance of confrontation.

* Refraining from any counter-productive behaviors.

* Cooperation toward creating and maintaining a negotiator atmosphere that is conducive to reaching a settlement.

* Approaching the issues (and not the other party) as the problem.

* Treating all concerned with respect and civility.

* Voluntarily providing all relevant financial information promptly and without objection.

* Negotiating in good faith toward a non-court resolution.

* Applying their energy and creativity toward coming to a compromise settlement, instead of wasting it on preparations for a trial that only takes place in 1 of every 10 cases.

Cooperative divorce law joins mediation and collaborative divorce as a third settlement-oriented method of resolving conflict. It combines some of the elements of traditional litigation with the collaborative law method. The parties decide what works best for them. Choosing to have a cooperative divorce gives you some control of your divorce and can save you money.

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