The Spilling of Data in Divorce

When husbands and wives divorce, data often spills out in embarrassing ways. When they engage in a contentious, mutually destructive divorce, data can flow out in a swiftly flowing river that may change their lives forever. This article in the New York Times provides several instructive examples.

When both spouses hire separate high-powered lawyers to represent them, and those high-powered lawyers each hire high-powered consultants to ferret out fragments of information about the other spouse, the results can be devastating to both spouses. Most of us never stop to think just how much our personal computer, iPad, or smartphone reveals about our lives. We are joined to them so completely, so seamlessly, that they become our confidant, our filing cabinet, our doctor, our therapist, our garbage can, and our mommy, all rolled into one.

One of the more striking quotes from the article is from one of those lawyers: “Anything they put in a text or an email or in social media, assume it will be blown up onto a poster board in a courtroom one day.”

Even in the friendliest divorce, the public record the spouses create in their divorce can reveal information about them they both would prefer stay private. That’s why I work to make the documents I file in cooperative divorces as boring as possible. Any time I can omit detail without compromising clarity, I do. Both spouses seem to appreciate it. That’s one of the many advantages of cooperative divorce. It’s particularly applicable to high profile and wealthy couples, who have the most to gain from keeping their parting quiet and amicable.

Because this page discusses my legal practice, I need to say this: no representation is made that the quality of the legal services to be performed is greater than the quality of legal services performed by other lawyers.

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