Facebook: Maybe it’s your face a judge is looking at

“Pictures are forever” is a phrase that has undoubtedly been uttered more than a few times across the country by family members looking at decades-old snapshots of long gone relatives who continue to stare back at them from well-worn photo albums.

And how evocative those historical keepsakes can be. It’s certainly not hard to understand the widespread maxim of a picture being worth a thousand words.

Actually, there’s a downside to that, which we note in today’s blog post focused (no pun intended) on Facebook and its potential ramifications in a divorce proceeding.

If you’re enamored of that social media tool and regularly on the site (no singularity there, given the reportedly billion-plus people who interact with others through Facebook), you’ve likely taken due measures to reasonably control your presence by adjusting the controls regarding who can see, download and pass along your uploaded information.

If you’re presently going through a divorce and it is at all contentious regarding important matters like child custody, visitation, spousal/child support or property division, you might want to take another look at your Facebook settings and online presence.

Because your ex-partner likely is, along with his or her family members and friends.

A recent media article chronicling the potential pitfalls linked with Facebook use notes that sometimes “all it takes is one mishap evidenced in a tagged Facebook post to send [a divorce] case into a tailspin.”

And your former significant other is perchance trolling for unflattering images of you right now that might cast you in a negative light in a family law case.

That might seem undecidedly fair, of course, and there might be a solid explanation for every seemingly questionable photo or post that might end up being scrutinized by a judge.

Nonetheless, and as noted in the above-cited article, “Perception is reality.”

So a bit of admonitory guidance to any Facebook user involved in a divorce proceeding might reasonably stress all due caution regarding what’s out there in the very literal public eye.

With this caveat added: If there is online material that might portray you in an uncomplimentary way in a divorce matter, be candid with your attorney about that and timely get it on the table so that your legal counsel can timely devise a strategy to deal with it.