Family L aw in the Digital Age: Befriend New Technologies in Family Law

1. Family Law in the Digital Age: Befriend New Technologies in Family Law Annette T. Burns, esq. Edith A. Croxen, esq. AFCC-CA Annual Conference 2011 San Francisco, California February 13, 2011

2. The Internet World • The internet is now a “Cloud” • The internet cloud is “a collection of utilities built on internet technologies for on-demand services” • Also known as SaaS or Software as a Service • Sample Clouds: Amazon Web Services Google Apps Force.com Microsoft Windows Azure Salesforce.com Today on Google Search 42,000,000 hits for cloud computing!

3. What does the internet look like? It has physical locations. • In the U.S.: Miami, Florida - NAP of the Americas; • Columbia River Valley – Google; • Microsoft, Yahoo and Amazon • Microsoft facility alone is 469,000 square feet which could house seven Boeing 747s and is cooled by the Columbia River

4. Cloud Computing • Microsoft announced 6/3/10 that it was entering into a collaboration with the world’s two largest laptop manufacturers, Quanta Computers and Compal Electronics of Taiwan, to develop and manufacture a new generation of servers for containerized cloud data centers

5. Security Issues • THE INTERNET IS NOT SECURE!!! • Identity theft – five times more likely by stolen wallet than high tech hacking • But, exposure of personal emails and information can only be done on the internet • Security services recommend consumers learn password protection rules • ISPs and Secondary ISPs

6. How can we use the internet and remain safe and sane? • Today technology entrepreneurs everywhere can take advantage of what Google and Yahoo learned along the way. They can write their own apps to run on Google’s data center infrastructure. • The Biggest Cyber Crime in History – Issue 1106 June 2010, Rolling Stone Magazine

7. What you can do - Security • Passwords need to be different for each utility • Use a combination of letters and numbers or symbols from the keyboard • Do not store on computer • Choose false questions and false answers or make up obscure security questions.

8. Searching Issues • Define how you want to use the internet, personally and professionally • Take a few hours to find the best search engines for your needs • Search engines are not content-driven sites; they are search-only sites • A good search engine does your work for you • There are search engines to find search engines: • Dogpile.com; hotbot.com

9. A Search Warrant? • United States v. Vosburgh, (3d Cir. 2010) • Facts: Vosburgh was convicted of having child pornography on his computer. • Holding: The IP address listed on an affidavit “provided a ‘substantial basis’ for the magistrate's conclusion that there was a ‘fair probability that contraband or evidence of a crime [would] be found’ in Vosburgh's apartment at the time of the search.”

10. Legal Portals: • HierosGamos (HG) • http://www.hg.org • Nolo Press • http://www.nolo.com • RSS Feed – electronic update services that allows blog to automatically deliver information continuously to desktop

11. Legal Search Engines and Portals FindLaw’sLaw Crawler (http://lawcrawler.lp.findlaw.com and http://www.legaline.com/lawsites.html) These sites are programmed to search only sites that contain legal information. Legal Portals and Directories The difference between portals and search engines is that the portals are human constructed and monitored. • Legal portals and directories are usually sponsored by one of five different groups: 1. Commercial entities 2. Law firms 3. Governments 4. Academic Institutions 5. Associations • “A high quality, useful legal portal or directory should: (1) be reliable by being credible, up-to-date and objective; (2) include a subject directory and preferably a jurisidictional directory; (3) link directly to many relevant sites; and (4) be user friendly (intuitive).” Levitt and Rosch, The Cybersleuth’s Guide to the Internet

12. Control Issues • Parental Controls • Keeping your computer clean Delete Cookies Delete Files Delete History Clean Disk Defragment • Chatroulette!!!!!

13. Social Networking • Facebook • Myspace • Twitter • LinkdIn • Second Life • Meetup • Orkut • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites

14. Survey • How many of you are on facebook? • LinkedIn? • Twitter? One out of 8 couples married in the US in 2009 met via social media.

15. Facebook vs. Myspace Facebook Myspace • Personal page vs. fan page • Applications (security risks) • All pages look the same • PRIVACY!!!! • 500,000,000 members • Can embed music • Everyone is friends with the founder • Create your own theme • 130,000,000 members Both of them have IM, status updates, the ability to email all friends at once, mobile updates, subscriptions, etc.

16. Facebook • There are over 500,000,000 people on FB; about half sign on to FB every day. • Obama and many others used FB to campaign and continue to use it for their base. • The largest user group remains 18-25 year olds, but there are still over 15M users age 45 or older, and the growth rate for 45 years and older runs about 4%. • Largest growth demographic is women age 55-65.

17. Facebook

18. Service of Process • December 2008: Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory ruled that Facebook is a valid protocol to serve court notices to defendants. It is believed to be the world's first legal judgment that defines a summons posted on Facebook as legally binding. • March 2010: New Zealand High Court allowed for the serving of legal papers on Craig Axe by the company Axe Market Garden via Facebook.

19. LinkedIn • The professional social network site – 70,000,00 members • Resume • Recommendations • Blog and Twitter accessibility • Groups – AzAFCC has a newly-formed group

20. Twitter • July 2010 = 70,000,000 users • January 2011 = 190,000,000 members • 140 character updates • 65 million tweets per day • Library of Congress archives all tweets

21. Your tweets get around, fast.

22. AFCC tweets • AFCCtweets AFCC  • Register for AFCC's 48th Annual Conference in Orlando by Friday, February 18, 2011, for a chance to win a free...http://fb.me/KiUDZ8eP • 3 Feb • AFCCtweets AFCC  • Register for AFCC's 48th Annual Conference in Orlando by Friday, February 18, 2011, for a chance to win a free registration and take advanta • 3 Feb • AFCCtweets AFCC  • Check out the January eNEWS: Member Profile of Allan Barsky; Nancy Rappaport's article on divorce, custody and...http://fb.me/SJyuSizn • 25 Jan • AFCCtweets AFCC  • Check out the January eNEWS: Member Profile of Allan Barsky; Nancy Rappaport's article on divorce, custody and suicide; Ask the Experts - Fe • 25 Jan • AFCCtweets AFCC  • The January 2011 issue of Family Court Review is now available online! Log in to the AFCC Member Center to view it:http://ping.fm/ud0ug • 19 Jan • » • AFCCtweets AFCC  • Online registration is now open for AFCC's 48th Annual Conference!http://fb.me/QRkEBSAz • 12 Jan

23. Problems with social networking for litigants • Posting inappropriate information / photos • Information can be about where the person was • Wrong timing – supposed to be with kids but instead on facebook • Photos can be in a bar or of their significant other’s children (ex of significant other usually does not like that) • Finding old relationships – one law firm says that 20% of divorces cite facebookin the petition. http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/57742,news-comment,technology,facebook-causes-one-in-five-divorces-says-law-firm

24. AAML Survey re Facebook • Facebook is Primary Source for Compromising Information • If your status is separated or going through a divorce, you might want to stay off Facebook.  An overwhelming 81% of the nation’s top divorce attorneys say they have seen an increase in the number of cases using social networking evidence during the past five years, according to a recent survey of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML).  

25. What else have litigants done? • Posting nude pictures of an ex: http://www.freep.com/article/20100520/NEWS06/100520018/ • Blaming the phone company for the breakup: http://news.nationalpost.com/2010/05/17/woman-sues-rogers-wireless-inc-for-ruining-her-marriage/

26. Problems with social networking for Professionals • Ethics! • Updating at problematic times regardless of what is said • Privacy issues: adversarial litigants finding out about your personal life • Getting the relevant information into evidence • Did we mention ethics?

27. Recently in the News • Hey don’t worry: http://volokh.com/2010/02/11/hey-dont-worry-the-judge-is-my-friend/ • Florida Supreme Court said that judges and lawyers may not be friends on facebook. • What about an organization like AFCC? • “The practice of lawyers and judges actually being friends, of course, can’t be prohibited; if lawyer Jones and Judge Smith played golf last weekend, well, bully for them. And the fact that they did so in a public place and could therefore show up in the newspaper wouldn’t give anyone grounds for complaint. But there is something different about being listed as a “friend” on a publicly-accessible website.”

28. More in the News • ABA Journal: http://www.abajournal.com/weekly/article/ethics_officials_seeing_more_cases_from_lawyers_online_foibles • Above the Law: http://abovethelaw.com/2010/06/divorce-lawyers-turn-facebook-into-a-case-winning-gold-mine/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+abovethelaw+(Above+the+Law)

29. Because it never stops • Friending an ex-felon, who the judge sentenced: http://abovethelaw.com/2010/06/judge-of-the-day-joseph-r-carico-gives-up-his-honor-for-halo/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+abovethelaw+(Above+the+Law)

30. Technology in the evaluation and the courtroom • What about the admissibility of all these other social networking posts, messages, texts, exchanges, photographs • Emails between litigants as trial exhibits has skyrocketed • Use of emails as documentation of parenting abilities in evaluations : at least evaluators are not constrained by strict admissibility standards.

31. Use of Internet-Posted Items as Evidence in Court PDF the page/ file, to preserve the exact appearance of the page, including the URL where the image was located, and the DATE it was preserved. Remember that it CAN be easily changed/ deleted, so immediate preservation is vital. Adobe Acrobat 9.0 is the standard for creation of files

32. Preservation of the web page • Open up the page • Convert to PDF using Adobe Acrobat (“print to Adobe” is the choice); this is a right-click action . • Save the PDF file • You now have preserved that page for posterity, even if it’s changed later.

34. But can you get it admitted? • Is the Evidence Relevant? • Is it Authentic? • Is there a Hearsay Issue? • Are there any other Evidentiary Rules to worry about? Can you establish foundation for this image?

35. Family Privacy Orders • Parental Controls of Home Computers. • Both parents will use parental controls on all computers which are accessible to the minor children. In the event an adult’s computer does not have parental controls, it shall be password protected with a secure password unknown to the child. The parental controls shall include content and user time limitations. Parents shall only use secure sites to download children’s games and shall review the content prior to allowing the child to participate in any internet game.

36. Minor’s participation in Facebook/My Space/Twitter and other interactive social networking internet activities. • The minor may participate in obtaining these accounts (upon agreement by both parties) but (each) parent will have the minor’s password for any of these accounts and shall be able to completely monitor, and, if necessary, shut down the account. • All accounts regarding the minor shall be private accounts and shall not be open to public use. The parents will monitor periodically to determine whether the child’s “friends” are appropriate and shall block and “friend” which the parent deems in appropriate.

37. Use of photographs of children on the internet. In the event either parent desires to post photographs of the children on a social networking or other internet site, that parent will maintain the privacy of the site by blocking unknown persons and will block “friends of friends.” Additionally, any photograph of the child shall be appropriate for age and content and shall not include any nudity or partial nudity. The parent will take any other necessary security precautions as may be required from time to time.

38. Telephone for minor. • A telephone for the minor child shall not be provided by either parent prior to the child’s tenth birthday. Any telephone provided for the child from age 10 until age 12 shall be restricted to the telephone numbers the parent(s) elect and shall include 911. • After age 12, the minor’s phone may be unrestricted (upon agreement of the parties ) and the parent providing the telephone shall allow unrestricted text messaging. In the event the minor requests a Twitter account, the parents shall strictly monitor said account for content appropriateness

39. Inappropriate Internet Activities. • The minor child shall not be exposed to any pornography in either parent’s home or in any situation in which the parent is aware that the minor may be exposed to pornography. This includes the use of avatars to enter internet virtual worlds such as Second Life or others which may from time to time exist. • The parents will monitor any virtual interactive games the child may be involved in for appropriate content and activity. If the parent cannot or does not do so, the site will be removed from the minor’s participation by an appropriate computer parental control.

40. Notification to each parent. Each parent will notify the other at any time there is a change to the minor’s accounts, internet activities or other significant event regarding the minor’s privacy or potential invasion thereof. • Parents will take reasonable precautions that a parent’s significant other or spouse is made aware of these family privacy orders and shall monitor the use of the minor’s privacy information (including photographs) by the parent’s significant other or spouse.

41. New Issues. The parents will maintain communication about any new developments on the internet or internet related devices which may negatively impact the minor and will cooperate with each other to address any such issues.

42. Technology for Good - Litigants • Long distance visitation and Skype • Ourfamilywizard.com • Divorce / Family information online • Text messaging / emailing instead of talking face-to-face or even over the phone • Google. Everyone should have a Gmail account. • Documents • Calendar • Email account both parents use and give the school

43. Google Calendar – Mom’s View

44. Google Calendar - Sharing

45. Google Calendar – Accepting Invitation

46. Google Calendar – Dad’s View

47. Technology for good – Professionals: Convenience,learn, teach, and promote • Email: Paperless, convenient, fast (is it safe?) • Your PASSWORD should not be “password”. Longer passwords proven more likely to thwart hackers. Use a sentence? • Rules of e-mail engagement for litigants and PC clients • Websites: Make your website user-friendly • LinkedIn: Why Keg Stands will keep LinkedIn viable • Blogs: learn about family law and promote your business • Twitter: some groups send links to articles and new case law (LinkedIn groups too) • RSS Reader (like Google reader): Have important posts sent to you

48. Adobe Acrobat: Save your sanity and your practice • The horrendous mass of emails from PC, evaluation and litigation cases can be saved to one convenient PDF file that’s available for perusing, including attachments preserved in their original format. • Turns an outrageous and never-ending list of emails into something searchable and useable.

49. www.ABANET.org Lawyer’s Guide to Adobe Acrobat

50. www.ABANET.org Lawyer’s Guide to Microsoft Outlook 2007