The Facebook Effect

As unbelievable as it may sound, Facebook is changing the world of family law and divorce. The more you post, the more likely it is that what you post will be used against you in your divorce or post decree case. Just this week, a doctor's wife was served with papers requesting that alimony or maintenance be terminated because she was allegedly living with her boyfriend from Florida. All of the ex-husbands information and alleged evidence came from Facebook posts by the ex-wife. We will ultimately win the case because she is not living with her boyfriend. However, it will be a big fight and expensive. All of this would have been avoided if the ex-wife had simply not posted so much personal information on Facebook. I know it is a great way to keep in communication with your friends, but don't forget it is essentially public information. Do not post anything that you don't want the whole world, including your ex-spouse, to know.

Can't We Just All Get Along, Unfortunately No

I finished a divorce case recently with two parties that have several million dollars worth of assets. They completed their divorce case in less than three months and between them spent less than $7,000.00 in total attorney fees. They cooperated well together for the best interest of themselves and their children. We represented the husband and the wife had one of my main competitors, a top notch divorce attorney in Peoria. What that case showed is that parties in a divorce do not have to hate each other and spend tens of thousands of dollars on their legal fees to get a fair and proper settlement. It does not matter whether you have ten thousand dollars worth of net worth or ten million, the issues are the same and you do not have to litigate everything to death just because you have a high net worth or because you have the money to pay the fees. Just because you have the ability to spend money on attorney fees doesn't mean you should.

On the other hand, several years ago, I handled a divorce for a couple that were only married two years and had no children. Both worked and had the ability to get a nice smooth divorce with minimal expense. It should have been quick and painless, with minimal attorney fees. Instead, the husband, who was an engineer, decided he wanted to act like they were never married, and wanted to go back and argue over every penny earned and every asset acquired during the short term marriage. That position was contrary to the law. Ultimately we prevailed for the wife and he lost. However, he caused the divorce to go on for over a year and they spent over $15,000.00 in total attorney fees. All because he was unreasonable and wanted to fight.

The moral of the story is that a divorce can be as smooth or as difficult as the clients and as the attorneys make it. If you want to get along, a fair resolution can be found with reasonable cost and expense. If you want to be unreasonable, then the attorneys win and it costs a lot to both clients, both in time, money and emotions.