Facebook Best Tool in Divorce Lawyer’s Toolbox

When you hire a divorce lawyer today their first bit of advice is to:
#1 Download all the dirt from your soon-to-be-ex-spouse’s Facebook Page.
#2 Delete your Facebook Account.
The article below mentions that over 80% of all divorce cases now include Facebook drama. Wow.

From TampaBayOnline here:

If eHarmony is the Web site bringing lovebirds to the threshold of marriage, Facebook is the one showing up for the divorce.

The world’s most popular social media site is revolutionizing the divorce experience, pouring toxin into virtually every stage of a collapsing marriage.

Rekindling old flames into blazing affairs. Exposing the “Exhibit A” that divorce lawyers wave in the courtroom. Providing a global stage for feuding spouses to torch each other’s reputations in multi-media splendor.

Take, for instance, the Tampa wife who videotaped fights with her husband (camera in one hand, accusing finger in the other), to post on Facebook later. A child psychologist called it “like a reality TV show.”

Or the Tampa husband with a Facebook fixation, who posted minute-by-minute updates about his frustrations with parenting. Lawyers for his wife gleefully turned the online confessions against him in court.

Facebook is “like gasoline on the fire,” said Chris Ragano, a Tampa attorney who says Facebook turns up in more than half of new cases each month. Now, he orders every new client to cancel their Facebook account on Day 1 of his retainer – but not before using the account to collect evidence against the other side.

More than 80 percent of lawyers surveyed by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers said Facebook is showing up in more divorce cases. Sixty-six percent called Facebook the unrivaled leader for online divorce evidence, followed by MySpace (15 percent) and Twitter (5 percent).

Facebook. 1 million love matches made. 7 million divorces caused.