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Family Law Attorney Says Forty Percent of Clients Cite Technology, Social Media as Factors in Divorce

Cherry Hill, NJ (February 2, 2010) - After over ten years in practice, nothing much surprises divorce attorney Nicole T. Donoian, including a recent report based on nationwide divorce statistics suggesting that the abuse or overuse of social media can negatively impact couples' relationships and threaten their marriages.

Donoian, a divorce attorney and shareholder with the law firm Flaster/Greenberg PC in Cherry Hill, says that what she sees in her practice corroborates the national findings. Nationally, the report found that in 5,000 cases filed for divorce, the word "Facebook" was mentioned in one out of five, or about 20 percent of the cases.  In Donoian's South Jersey practice, however, the number of clients who cite their partners' use of social media and technology as a factor in their breakups is about two in five, or about 40 percent.

According to Donoian, in her experience, relationships often times break up due to infidelity. And that has not changed.  "If you asked me what most often prompts a person to file for divorce, my answer would be the other partner's infidelity and I believe that same answer would have given ten or twenty years ago.  What has changed is the ‘how,' not the ‘what.'

According to Donoian, technology has made many aspects of modern life easier - including infidelity. "With wireless access, you can go to Facebook, Twitter, Craigslist, etc., whether you are at the doctor's office, on jury duty, or at the coffee shop. If you have a cell phone, you can text no matter what time of day or where you are. Thanks to technology, infidelity is at your fingertips 24/7."

Some of the other trends that Donoian sees in her practice include:

• Individuals stating that their spouses or partners are on Facebook and other social media cites spending long periods of time on the internet
• One parent is left to be the children's caregiver while the other parent spends their evenings online
• The internet can be misused to victimize a spouse or partner via social media, including stalking, setting up fictitious accounts using spouse's name, and multiple other ways

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ABOUT FLASTER/GREENBERG P.C.:  Flaster/Greenberg, Attorneys at Law has been providing legal services to individuals, entrepreneurs, privately-held and family owned businesses and publicly traded corporations throughout the Delaware Valley for nearly four decades.  A regional business law firm of 70 attorneys with offices in Pennsylvania (PA), New Jersey (NJ) and Delaware (DE), Flaster/Greenberg serves clients in dozens of industries and practice areas including bankruptcy, business & corporate, construction, health care, intellectual property and family law.