Understanding the Role of Social Media in Legal Contexts
Are you in the middle of a legal battle and you’re not sure how social media can come into that? My name is Carl Birkhead. I’m an criminal law attorney with Wirth Law Office in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I’ve been doing family and criminal law for about seven years. I want to help you make law easy by just talking a little bit about how posting on social media can affect a family case or even a criminal case.
The Dangers of Social Media in Legal Proceedings
The short answer is don’t do it. I feel like that’s my short answer for a lot of these situations just don’t do it. Don’t do it. The more you put on social media, the more can be used against you later on. You have the right to remain silent and that’s not just in criminal cases.
I’ve seen cases blow up because people put the wrong things on social media. For example, when I was an intern, we had a divorce case where the opposing party was posting on social media about how her attorney was supposedly instructing her to commit perjury. We grabbed those screenshots, we showed up to court with them, and we showed the opposing counsel that their case just fell apart like a deck of cards.
Real-World Examples of Social Media Impacting Cases
Similarly, I had a case also when I was an intern. It was a guardianship case. In guardianship and adoption cases, you’re not supposed to talk about anything related to the case. My clients didn’t get that memo. They talked about everything about the case on social media.
They posted the allegations. They posted pictures. They posted everything that’s supposed to be a part of the closed record. They just put it out there for the public to see. The courts don’t like to see that. The courts hate to see that. They take confidentiality very seriously and it did not go well for my clients in that instance. That’s just on the family side of cases.
Social Media as Evidence in Criminal Cases
I had a case where my client was accused of possessing and selling Xanax bars. I didn’t have much of a defense because the prosecutor had screen grabs from Snapchat where she was posting, who wants these bars with a bunch of dollar signs behind them. Just don’t do it.
I realize that this sounds like such commonsensical advice, but common sense does tend to leave the room in these situations for some reason. People don’t think things through. If you want to blow off some steam and talk about your case, I can’t stop you from doing that. Just don’t make a record of it. That’s all social media is. It’s just one giant transcript of everything that you’ve ever said online and it’s going to be brought up against you.
Schedule Your Low-Cost Initial Strategy Session
If you have questions about this, please don’t hesitate to let us know. I’m Tulsa criminal attorney Carl Birkhead and I want to help you make law easy. Call us today at 918-879-1681 to schedule your low-cost initial strategy session.
