I recently told a room of potential referral sources an easy way to remember me as a resource for their clients. I didn't tell them that they should remember me for being a mediator. I didn't tell them that they should remember me because I'm a family law lawyer or a divorce lawyer. That doesn't matter to referral sources or clients in today's world because it's not memorable, and it's not unique or interesting.  There are a lot of mediators and divorce lawyers, and many of them are great, and many of them have more experience than I do. Instead I said: Call me when when your friend changes their Facebook status to "It's Complicated" The message contained in this request is not that I am a lawyer or a mediator, so you should hire me.  The message is that I help people when things get complicated.  The message is about the potential client, not about me, or my skills.  It's about what they are going through.   (also the refere...

At Kelsey & Trask, P.C. we recognize that the state-of-the-art technology affects not just the positive aspects of our lives but also the negative. For example, constant access to e-mail, facebook, twitter and similar services provides us with both ways to connect and ways to be distracted (as described further in this NPR article about cell phones interfering with marriages ). It is important therefore to make effective use of technology to help you in your divorce case and also to recognize how the use of technology could hurt your case. These new technologies can also be used to help us learn more about the statistics of divorce (as described in this article about the break-up trends displayed in Facebook posts ). Below you can find some resources on our blog and website that deal with both the positive and negative impact of technology on divorce. We have written many times on this site about the many ways in which Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites are...

Following up on an earlier blog post discussing how contact through social networking websites, such as Facebook, may be an arrestable offense when there is an existing restraining order in effect, threats posted on social networking websites may also give rise to the issuing of a restraining order. In Arizona, an argument between two college students was escalated when one of the students wrote on his Twitter account that he would "not hesitate to punch [the other student] in the face if I saw him . . . Just sayin." The other student then obtained a restraining order because of the "tweet." Regardless of whether the "tweet" was a legitimate threat, it is important to realize that writing something of that nature on a social networking website makes it possible that the individual to whom you are referring might read it, and might take it seriously. Be smart. Don't take your arguments to the internet. You are just documenting the "he-said...

As this news video from CNN describes more and more people are blaming Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and other social networking sites for their divorces. Although I would argue that these sites are simply an outlet for feelings that would otherwise have surfaced in another form, there is still a lesson to be learned here. Assume that anything you write on the internet (whether on a "private" page or not) is going to be seen by everyone. It is not only discoverable (in the legal sense) but likely to be discovered or passed along or shared by family, friends, or other acquaintances.