BEWARE OF MEETING PEOPLE ON SOCIAL NETWORKING OR DATING MATCH SITES

As a divorce lawyer, I am seeing social networking take an ever-increasing role in my cases.  Years ago, I first encountered this when opposing counsel produced a copy of a dating service posting by my client listing himself as single.  Since that time, I have seen many instances of people posting themselves as single, when in fact, they are not.  Unsuspecting responders to these postings can find themselves caught in the middle of a divorce even though they believed they were seeing someone who was single.

Prudence calls for great care in believing what is presented on the web.  And remember, a troubled marriage or a separated marriage is still a marriage. Any sexual intercourse with a person who is not divorced is still adultery, even if the parties are separated or moving towards divorce.  In addition, even if the meeting is innocent, one can still get caught up in the middle of a dispute as a potential witness.

3 comments

  1. Dear Mark,

    This is great advice, but the headline implies meeting people on dating site in general is bad idea.

    After all, you can still meet someone in person – who claims to be single and isn’t. So your advice applies to meeting people in general, not just dating sites…

  2. i think people should keep away from individuals in the process of divorcing.their partners never seem to take it well

  3. The advice shouldn’t apply just to dating sites. Rushing into a relationship with anyone that you just met is usually a bad idea.