In matters of divorce, article 259 of the Civil Code provides that the facts invoked as a cause of divorce or as a defense to a claim may be established by any method of proof. Thus, it appears that social networks could also be used.
Social networks: evidence obtained with loyalty
First of all, you should know that the information collected on social networks constitutes evidence acceptedby case law on the condition ofto have been obtained with loyalty.
Indeed, the proof of one of the spouses is not admissible only on condition that it was not obtained by violence or fraud (article 259-1 of the Civil Code) and that it does not infringe on privacy (article 259-2 of the Civil Code).
In addition, writing in electronic form is admissible evidence “provided that the person from whom it emanates can be duly identified. and that it is established and preserved in conditions such as to guarantee its integrity ”.
Divorce: information must be freely accessible
The production of screenshots must therefore respect these principles. Concretely, this means that information must be freely accessible. The publication must be public : this assumes that the spouse has a public Facebook account or a public Instagram profile.
The social media account’s private post or messages must be on a non-passcode-protected family computer.
Finally, it will be necessary as clearly as the person sending the message can be duly identifiedin accordance with the rules applicable to evidence.
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