Latest / Family Law Talk / Avoiding digital pitfalls in domestic relations matters

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Avoiding digital pitfalls in domestic relations matters · Family Law Talk

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Familylaw Talk. Familylaw Talk presented by Kirk Stangy
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  of Stangy Law Firm PC. Stangy Law Firm is a
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  multi state family law firm. Now here's your host, Kirk Stangy.
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  Speaker 2: Welcome to Family Law Talk. We have an interesting topic today.
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  The topic is avoiding digital pitfalls and domestic relations matters.
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  And this episode today is based on an article on
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  our blog Familawheadquarters dot com dated January thirtieth, twenty twenty six,
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  and the title of that article is avoiding Digital Pitfalls
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  Daring divorce and FAMI law cases. So as a follow
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  up to the episode today, going over to Familawheadquarters dot
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  com and read this article for more information. All right,
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  so let's jump into the topic at hand, and it's
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  really an important one, okay. In today's digital age, obviously,
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  lots of parties use email, lots of parties are on
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  social media, and this is really prevalent in society today.
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  But look, there's some risk when going through a domestic
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  relations case, and it's really important that parties are careful
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  and that parties are doing the right things and these
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  types of cases, and that they're not overstepping and that
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  at the same time, they're securing their email and social
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  media accounts as well. Okay, so let's go ahead and
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  jump on in in more detail in terms of things
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  to do and things not to do. And let's start
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  with talking about a really big item in terms of
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  not doing something. Okay, this is something never ever to do.
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  This is never a road to go down. This is
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  never right, This is never a path to go down.
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  This is never something to think about, contemplate, or do
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  in any shape, matter or form.
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  Speaker 3: Okay.
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  Speaker 2: So, look, when a divorce is begun or a famil
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  ot case has begun, or even where it's reasonably anticipated,
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  do not log in to your spouses or the opposing
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  parties accounts. Okay, Look when when parties are married, or
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  maybe when couples are living together and they're not married.
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  Let's say it could be common in a marriage or
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  in a relationship where where parties or partners of living together,
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  you know, to know each other's account logins. And oftentimes
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  in a marriage or in a relationship, parties willingly give
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  their login information to their spouse or their significant other,
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  and so it's just sort of common knowledge, you know,
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  So parties have the log of information to the other
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  individual's email accounts. Maybe there's social media accounts, and it
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  could be other things as well, you know, online banking
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  could be something, could be investment accounts, retirement accounts.
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  Speaker 3: You know.
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  Speaker 2: To log in information is just freely given to the
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  spouse or the significant other, right and you know, most
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  couples or you know, most spouses think nothing of this,
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  and it's just sort of normal.
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  Speaker 3: To do this, Okay.
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  Speaker 2: But look, when a divorce or familylaw case has begun
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  or it's reasonably anticipated, right, like, parties know this is
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  going to result in either divorce or attorney case or
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  some other type of litigation.
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  Speaker 3: Okay.
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  Speaker 2: One of the most important rules and things not to
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  do is at this point you cannot log into your
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  spouses or the other parties accounts. Okay, So you cannot
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  be logging into their email, you cannot log into their
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  social media accounts again, even if you were given the
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  log in previously. Okay, you got to know that this
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  is a bad idea and something that cannot be done.
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  Speaker 3: Okay. Obviously this is.
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  Speaker 2: Something to talk about with your lawyer, talk about with
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  your attorney. But any good and decent lawyer attorney will
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  tell you not to do this, right, that this is
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  really bad to do this or to think about doing this. Okay,
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  And for a lot of individuals, they might wonder why
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  why is this bad? I mean, my spouse gave me
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  the log in my significant other game at the log in.
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  They didn't change their log in information. They never told
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  me I couldn't go in there, and they told me
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  I could go in there in the past. You know,
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  why is it bad now? Well, look, you know it's
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  bad for all kinds of reasons.
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  Speaker 3: Okay.
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  Speaker 2: One, if an individual is communicating with their attorney through
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  that email account, yeah, this could be a problem in
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  terms of attorney client privilege in confidentiality, like a party
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  cannot be reading, reviewing in any shape, matter or form.
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  There's spouses or there's significant others communication with their warrior
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  about a legal matter that involves them, right, I mean
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  it's really bad, Okay, really really bad.
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  Speaker 3: It just cannot happen.
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  Speaker 2: Obviously when you get into you know, social media accounts
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  and stuff like this too. I mean you're dealing with
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  privacy issues, confidentiality issues. I mean the user agreements with
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  these social media entities. I mean, only the actual user
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  is supposed to be logging in and so you know,
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  a party cannot do it. This is a harsh reality
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  as well. But this can even be criminal. This could
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  be construed as hacking, which violates some federal laws, maybe
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  some state laws in your jurisdiction, So it could be
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  construed as hacking, and so it could result in criminal implications.
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  And I know this is hard for a lot of
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  parties to really realize and wrap their arms around. But
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  they'll be like, well, I was given the log in
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  or whatever and they never changed it, So how is
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  that hacking or why is it a problem? Look, it's
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  a problem in terms of attorney client privilege, confidentiality, privacy laws,
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  and then you know criminal laws in terms of hacking
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  and computer tampering and these kinds of things.
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  Speaker 3: It's just bad news.
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  Speaker 2: So don't you know, don't do it, right, Just do
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  not do it.
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  Speaker 3: It's really, really, really bad.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, So do not ever go into your spouse's or
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  the opposing party's email or social media accounts or other
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  logins that could be again could be online banking, their
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  retirement accounts, could be various other things.
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  Speaker 3: Credit cards.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, if this isn't your retirement account or your
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  credit card and your name's not on it. It doesn't
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  matter that you were given the log in before. I mean,
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  once the case is reasonably anticipated or the divorce or
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  the familylaw case has begun, you cannot be going in there.
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  If you go in there, you could cause great problems
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  for your case.
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  Speaker 3: Okay. So that's rule number one.
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  Speaker 2: And again i'd encourage any of the listeners speak with
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  your attorney about this. But any good and decent lawyer
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  is going to tell you not to do this. And
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  you know, if you were to do it and then
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  try to pass that information on, I think a lot
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  of lawyers are going to withdraw from the case and
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  I want to be your lawyer anymore, and it could
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  really impact the case result as well.
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  Speaker 3: Okay.
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  Speaker 2: So I mean it's this doctrine of like tainted fruits.
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  So it's like, oh, okay, you go in there and
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  you get some information and you think it's going to
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  be helpful to your case, but it's tainted.
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  Speaker 3: You know, they're poisonous fruits.
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  Speaker 2: You can't even use them, so so be very careful there.
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  Speaker 3: Okay.
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  Speaker 2: Other things parties need to think about and contemplate. And
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  this is sort of the inverse of what I just said.
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  It is like, look, if you were given your logins
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  to your spouse, your your significant other or something like that,
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  once a case is reasonably anticipated or it's begun, like,
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  change your logins, right, it's time to change your passwords,
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  maybe your user names, make them something different that your
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  spouse or your significant other will not know, will not
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  be able to guess, because you have to have some
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  element or worry that they might try to log into
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  your stuff, right, because you gave them the log in before.
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  So you have to go around and change all your
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  user names and passwords and make them something different, something
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  that they can't guess. And so this is one of
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  the you know, important things a party ought to do
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  once they know that, hey, things are bad litigations come
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  in here, we're getting divorced, we're breaking up, or whatever
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  the deal is. Change your user names and passwords because
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  you don't want your acts going in there logging in
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  reading stuff between you and your attorney. And you don't
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  want them going in there accessing accounts and information that
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  they shouldn't be able to have access to as well. Okay,
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  so a lot of parties forget this, don't think about this,
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  don't contemplate it, but change your user name and passwords,
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  make it something different than what you've ever used before.
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  That way it can't be guessed. And that way your
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  accounts are secure and you don't have to worry that
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  you know, there's going to be some sort of breach
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  or hacking or tampering or something like that occurring in
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  terms of your communication. Okay, So again this is an
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  important topic. I mean, it's one that's relevant in today's age. Unfortunately,
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  it's one that you know, parties can be tempted to do,
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  can think about contemplate doing. But again it's very important
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  that parties.
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  Speaker 3: Do not do this.
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  Speaker 2: So do not be logging in to the opposing parties
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  or your ex's social media or email accounts or any
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  other accounts that aren't your accounts. I mean, you can't
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  do that. And please consider, you know, changing your logins
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  to your email and social media accounts to make sure
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  that there's no hacking into your accounts.
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  Speaker 3: Okay.
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  Speaker 2: You know, as a follow up to this episode, to
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  any of the listeners, if you have a lawyer, talk
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  with your lawyer about this in more detail. They can
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  give you more case specific advice. Obviously I'm speaking very
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  generally here, but this is a very important topic and
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  one I wanted to cover here today. All right, so again,
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  as a follow up to the episode, going over to
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  Familawheadquarters dot com, read the article data January thirty, twenty
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  twenty six titled avoiding digital pitfalls.
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  Speaker 3: During divorcing famil cases.
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  Speaker 2: Well, thanks for tuning in today, stay tuned to our
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  next episode of Family Law Talk coming up.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you very much.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Family Law Talk with Kirk Stangy.
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