Four Tips for Using Social Media While your Divorce is Pending

We live in a world where our online interactions are as frequent and as meaningful as those we conduct face to face. Many of these interactions take place on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, which allow us to share our thoughts and images of our lives with hundreds, even thousands of followers.

 If your divorce is pending, you should take special care when using social media. Even a seemingly innocent comment can be taken out of context and used to make you appear to be a bad parent or a financially irresponsible individual. Below are four strategies to use to keep your social media behavior in check while you are working through the divorce process.

 If you Would Not Say it in Court, Do Not Post it on Social Media

 This is because once you make a comment on social media, you can never completely take it back. Even if you delete a comment, you cannot know that nobody took a screenshot before you removed it. Instead of putting yourself in this position, censor yourself on social media. Do not post anything that could be construed as a negative statement about your former partner or the divorce.

 The Unfriend, Unfollow, and Block Buttons are your Friends

Know who has access to the information you post on social media. Although you can never be sure that your information is not being shared beyond your inner circle, you can limit who has firsthand access to your posts by limiting your contact lists. If you are facing harassment on social media, do not hesitate to block the harasser and if the harassment is coming from your spouse or a close relative or friend to him or her, mention this to your lawyer.

Keep the Details of your Divorce Off your Social Media Channels

Do not only censor your feelings about your former partner and the divorce. Censor any discussion about the details of the divorce, such as the amount of spousal maintenance you are seeking, how your assets were divided, and your timesharing schedule.

Do Not Make your New Relationship “Facebook Official” Until your Divorce is Finalized

Ideally, you should refrain from dating until your divorce is finalized. But if you do begin a new relationship before your divorce is final, keep it off social media. Your former partner can use photos and posts you make to support claims that you are spending marital money on your new partner or that you are a careless parent because you would rather focus on your love life than your children. Moving in with a new partner can also compromise your ability to receive spousal maintenance, and photos from social media can be used to show or allege a cohabitating relationship.

Work with an Experienced Winter Park Divorce Lawyer

If your marriage has reached the point where you cannot save it, work with an experienced Winter Park divorce lawyer to end it. Contact The Law Offices of Aubrey Harry Ducker, Jr., PLLC today to schedule your initial consultation with Mr. Ducker.

https://www.floridabar.org/divcom/jn/jnjournal01.nsf/Author/9AE8F4F1F573FFD2852571230058168C

http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0000-0099/0061/Sections/0061.13.html

This came in my email today:

Hello!  My name is Jan Killilea   Please LIKE our Facebook page:   First Wives Advocacy Group   Here is what you can do TODAY:   1. LIKE our Facebook page: First Wives Advocacy Group, which is run by women just like me. We VALUE your privacy just as we value our own. We will NEVER disclose your name without your permission. You don't have to be a first wife, divorced or even a woman to lend your support; you just have to care that WOMEN are treated FAIRLY by our State Legislature.   2. FORWARD this email to your friends and family and ask them to JOIN you in supporting our fight to have women's contributions VALUED.   3. And stay tuned!

From Corporate LIFE to Corporate WIFE   I live in Florida, am 54 years old and went from corporate life to corporate wife 30 years ago. When I met my ex-husband, we both earned about the same salary.  He was an insurance adjuster and I was an account executive in San Francisco, CA.  We fell in love, got married in Reno, Nevada for $25 and moved to Massachusetts to raise a family.  TOGETHER we decided to become a one-career family and that my corporate, paying career would end.   We wanted to raise our children in a traditional marriage just as our parents had done.  This took sacrifice and hard work as a team!  His career started to take off and I gave birth to our first child in 1984, our second in 1986 and our last in 1988.  While he traveled extensively, I stayed home to manage our young and growing family. My ex-husband's growing career led us to nine corporate relocations, with our final move to Florida in 2005.   During our relocation to Florida in 2005 my ex-husband had an extra-marital affair with our real estate agent. After attempting to save my marriage for over a year, I finally filed for divorce. My ex-husband married this woman (who was 12 years younger than me) two weeks after our divorce was final. They divorced 23 months later.  We would have celebrated our 31st wedding anniversary in January, 2014.   I am now 54 years old, struggling to find a job and my ex owes me over $100,000.00. He dissipated marital assets during our divorce and still owes me a net balancing payment from our retirement account which he spent on his new home in San Juan Capistrano, CA.  He recently bought a ski house in Carson City, NV for $140,000.00 CASH. In the meantime, "Florida Alimony Reform" repeatedly slanders me, cyber stalks and bullies me and invades my personal life. THIS MUST STOP.     Thanks to Gov. Rick Scott's May 1, 2013 VETO, Florida's alimony and child custody laws remain intact. But this won't stop men like my ex-husband and the men and new girlfriends and new wives behind "Florida Alimony Reform" from trying to influence legislators to support punitive, one-sided legislation. Although I TESTIFIED before the Florida Legislature in February 2013, it wasn't enough. WE NEED YOU!     We will FIGHT for women (97% of ALL alimony recipients are women) and for families to retain the right to have a stay-at-home parent. We will FIGHT the 50-50 child custody presumption. And we will FIGHT the end of alimony at payor's retirement. WHY? Because WOMEN deserve RESPECT and our contributions to families and society must be VALUED.     Will you please STAND WITH JAN for justice and enforcement for ALL WOMEN?

Dividing Assets in Divorce

Who gets what when you get divorced? This is one of the questions most people think about when the topic of divorce comes up. The Answer? Equitable Distribution.

Equitable is not always Equal. Dividing up marital assets and deciding who has to pay which debts can be rather tricky, especially since the real estate crash. Beginning in 2007 and continuing until last year, many homes fell in value. Some Marital Homes lost more than 60% of their pre-crash value. Over 2013 we have begun to see reversals and many homes are once again gaining value and in some cases Equity. Is this the right time to file for Divorce? Call me at 407-645-3297 to set a time to discuss your particular situation. You can always visit my website at www.aubreylaw.com

Dividing Equity can usually be done either by trading other assets, including retirement accounts or buying out the other party's interest. Of course you know Equity is that portion of the value of the home that you own, that value above the mortgages. For example: A $250,000 home with a mortgage of $180,000 and a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) of $20,000 would have Equity of $50,000. Were the owners to sell the home and divide the equity they could each receive $25,000 (Of course this assumes two owners, and no selling costs).

Equitable Distribution begins to get more complicated when the home is "underwater" owing more in mortgages than the actual value of the home. Owing more than a home is worth may lead parties to consider a "Strategic Default."

For example, someone who purchased their home in May, 2007, may owe more than twice what the home is worth. Home values in the Orlando area hit their peak according to Zillow.com (www.zillow.com) between May 2006 and August 2007. A home in the 32801 zip code purchased in May 2007 for $225,000 could be worth as little as $114,000 today due solely to market forces. Who is willing to pay the $200,000 mortgage still owing on the home that is worth so little today.

Strategic Default http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/26/strategic-defaults/ is the homeowners plan to default on the mortgage and stay in the home as long as possible, rent free, until the foreclosure is completed and the bank forces them out. The New York Times had this to say about Strategic Default.   http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/magazine/10FOB-wwln-t.html   You might think this is an awful thing to do, but the Home Mortgage Bankers Association did the same exact thing in Washington DC.  http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/02/04/mortgage-groups-old-building-flipped-for-a-profit/

When homeowners face foreclosure, the extra stress can lead them to consider divorce as one alternative. If you are facing divorce, call me or visit my website www.aubreylaw.com

I will be here to help.