Remember to Check Your Settings: The Perils of Family Sharing Plans
| Author | Bradley C. Jones |
| Pages | 17-20 |
SUMMER 2021 17
make any semblance of a relationship between the parties
much more dicult to achieve. e disclosure of this type of
information to the opposing party could also make the
chances of success at mediation or other forms of alternative
dispute resolution slim. Most, if not all, jurisdictions have
provided their attorneys with guidance to counsel their
clients on the issues of technology and properly securing
their electronic information.
Advisory Opinions
e North Carolina State Bar specically addressed a lawyer’s
duties in discussing the ramications and necessary safe-
guarding of social media in Formal Ethics Opinion 5,
adopted on July 17, 2015. is Opinion “rules a lawyer must
advise a civil litigation client about the legal ramications of
the client’s postings on social media as necessary to represent
the client competently.” Rule 1.1 of the North Carolina
Rules of Professional Conduct, just as codied in Rule 1.1 of
the American Bar Association’s Rules of Professional Con-
duct, requires lawyers to provide competent representation to
a client.
Comment [8] to Rule 1.1 specically states that a lawyer
“should keep abreast of changes in the law and its practice,
including the benets and risks associated with the technol-
ogy relevant to the lawyer’s practice.” “Relevant technology”
includes social media. As stated in an opinion of the New
Hampshire Bar Association, N.H. Bar Ass’n Op. 2012-
“Remember, everything is right until it’s wrong. You’ll
know when it’s wrong.”
“You think so?”
“I’m quite sure. If you don’t it doesn’t matter. Nothing
will matter then.”
—Ernest Hemingway, e Garden of Eden
This quote is very appropriate in the context of the
dissolution of a marriage and accompanying
family law issues. Everything seems to be going
great in one’s marriage, with their children, and
their nancial status. en it all disappears in the
blink of an eye. All of a sudden, the marriage shatters, and
life is now completely upside down. e last thing on your
client’s mind is checking their family sharing plan settings
while planning all the legal, nancial, and personal ramica-
tions of a divorce. Failure to button up your client’s electron-
ic settings and passwords is perilous and can really have
adverse eects on your representation.
Imagine if text messages or photos regarding your client’s
new love interest pop up for all shared users of the parties’
family sharing plan, or if the opposing party is able to track
all movements of your client at the click of a button.
is would be a disaster for your client and would make
an already stressful situation much more dicult to manage.
e information could be used in litigation, could ruin the
chance of successfully achieving your client’s goals, and could
Remember to Check Your Settings
The Perils of Family Sharing Plans
BY BRADLEY C. JONES
Published in Family Advocate, Volume 44, Number 1, Summer 2021. © 2021 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof
may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.
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