Social Media and Family Law Proceedings

Can I post about my family law court proceedings?

Family law proceedings are confidential and under section 121 of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth), it is an offence to “publish” any identifying information relating to your family law matter. Section 121 also makes it an offence for relatives or friends of a person involved in proceedings to publish information about the proceedings.

This means you must never write about the specifics of your family law court proceedings, or the proceedings of someone else, on social media forums like Facebook or Twitter.

It is important to note that even if you did not include the other party’s name in your post, you can still be in breach of this section if there is enough information for it to be obvious who you’re writing about. For example, a post may be considered to be sufficient to identify that person where it refers to:-

• where that person lives or works;
• a physical description of that person; or
• the identity of that person’s relatives.

While it can be very tempting to write a family law Facebook post or posting about court on social media to update your friends and family about how your court proceedings are going, or to vent your frustrations about the other person, there are considerable risks in doing so.

If you are found to have breached section 121 of the Family Law Act, the consequences can be very serious and the offence can carry up to one year of imprisonment. Also, the information which has been published could also be used in court by the other party to your disadvantage.

Contact our experienced family law team on (07) 4963 2000 or via our online contact form, if you would like more information on your obligations under the Family Law Act.

Our team can also help you with your family law proceedings.