Today, we are going to discuss a side of West Virginia divorce that can be important. I want to talk about the importance of not acting out when you are interacting with your soon to be former spouse. If you have to send something over text or you have to communicate with them in any way, you need to be thinking to yourself, how is this going to appear in court? Is this going to make me look bad or is this going to make me look in a positive light? Whether you are actually communicating with the person in person or if you’re communicating with them over the phone or even if it’s by text message, you need to always act in a way that is not going to make you look in a poor light.
The rule that I advise my clients to go by whenever you’re going through a divorce is the simple principle of turning the other cheek. Let’s say that the other person says something that is just totally infuriating. That’s going to happen often times when you’re going through a divorce. What’s important is that you don’t act out in accordance with that. If you act out in a way that might make you appear not so good in court, it could you go against you when the judge makes decisions. One of the common questions I get in the context of West Virginia divorce is whether I can record the soon to be ex?
The answer is as long as both of you are in West Virginia, generally speaking, you’re going to be able to record each other. For example, if you’re part of the conversation, you’re going to be able to record that person. Now, I can’t speak for other laws in other States. I’m just telling you that if you’re interacting with that person, they could be recording you. Likewise, you could record them, but you always need to make sure that if you’re doing it, both of you are in the state of West Virginia because the laws are different from state to state. Obviously that also applies when it comes to text messages or emails or any communication of that sort. If you’re saying some things that aren’t going to make you look so good in court, it’s not going to be a good thing for you.
When I’m talking about with the turn the other cheek principal, what I mean is if the other person does something rotten to you, you shouldn’t be doing anything rotten back. If you do that, the courts could just throw their hands up and say you’re both really awful people and you’re not going to necessarily get the benefit of the doubt. Your goal is going into court and looking like you’re an angel and you want the other person to look.
If you’re acting out and you’re saying nasty things to them, you’re totally negating that because the court’s just going to think that you’re both rotten people and you’re not going to get the benefit of the doubt whenever you’re in court. Those are some general principles. Just ask yourself this question…”How is this going to look in court?”. Whether it’s taken out of context or not? If the answer to that is it’s going to look fine, then you have nothing to worry about. If it could possibly be used against you in court, don’t say it.
