People do not agree much these days, but most of them agree that social media is a major contributing factor to this discord. Your father-in-law’s bigoted views used to make Thanksgiving an unpleasant experience once a year, but now you get to see him sharing his vitriol on Facebook year-round. Kids who got bullied in school used to be able to go home to find peace and quiet and be surrounded by their loving families, but now the bullies follow their prey home on their smartphones, and all the family members in a once-loving household are glued to their own respective devices. What is a family lawyer to do? Powering off the devices will not cause the problem to go away. You must, however, talk some sense into your clients about what not to do online and about the extent to which the family court can control their ex’s online activities. A relentless optimist might say that family law attorneys are in an ideal position to model responsible social media use.
If Social Media Brings Out Your Client’s Worst Side, the Court Will See it
Family lawyers have always cautioned clients not to trash talk their ex-spouses if the couple has minor children together. In the pre-Internet age, though, divorced people could get drunk with their friends and vent about their exes, and once everyone sobered up, all was forgotten. If you vent your feelings to a friend, no one will find out, but if you post them on Facebook or another social media site, it is a matter of public record. If you later come to your senses and delete your angry post, there is a chance that your ex or one of your ex’s friends will have had a chance to take a screenshot of the offending post.
As a family lawyer, you are in a tight spot when the digital record shows your client being belligerent or passive-aggressive about co-parenting. You should emphasize to prospective clients, from the first consultation, that anything they say and do online can and will be used against them in family court.
Co-Parenting Disputes About Children’s Online Activities
Most parents of minors are at least somewhat disturbed by the ubiquitous presence of online content in their children’s lives, even if the parents are also glued to their own devices and even if the parents create online content for a living. Setting limits on children’s use of smartphones and engagement with online content can protect them from the worst of cyberbullying, commercialism, and pressure to engage in risky behaviors. Parents often disagree, however, about which content is appropriate and what the rules should be for smartphone use. This problem is even more pronounced when the parents are divorced, and the disagreement over children’s online activities is simply a proxy war for deeper underlying grievances. You should remind your clients that, while parenting plans should be detailed, the family courts do not micromanage; the judge will not rule on which YouTubers your client’s children are allowed to follow.
Fighting Back Against Online Misinformation About Family Law
Social media personalities are good at spreading misinformation about many subjects, including family law. If you want to know how the law does not work, just watch YouTubers’ reaction videos to news about celebrity divorce cases. Your law firm’s website is a good place to explain how the laws about alimony, parenting plans, and other matters of family law work in your state. If you have enough time and a big enough marketing budget, you might even create a YouTube channel where you explain your state’s family court laws, whether you use animation or the talking head format for your videos.
Can Any Good for Family Lawyers Come of Social Media?
People get hooked on social media because they feel compelled to constantly remind the world that they exist. While you, as a lawyer, are too wise to get sucked into his unhealthy fixation with attention, social media can effectively remind the world that your law firm exists, too. By posting tweets or sharing content on news feeds, you can create a situation where the name of your law firm frequently occurs on the screens of your target audience’s devices. Sometimes, reminding your target audience that you exist is the best marketing strategy for family lawyers. You cannot control when people in your city will need a family lawyer, but you can make your law firm’s name stick in their minds when they need one.
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