Facebook Is ‘Evidentiary Gold Mine,’ News Mag Says [Poll]

Facebook and other social networking sites may be the cat's meow when Internet users are trying to connect with family and friends. But when it comes time to disconnect, things can get ugly.

So reports Time magazine, which notes that lawyers "love these sites, which can be evidentiary gold mines."

"It's now just routine for us to go over with clients whether they have an active presence on the Web and if they Twitter or have a MySpace page," lawyer Joseph Cordell, whose firm Cordell & Cordell handles family law cases in 10 states, told Time.

Cordell told the magazine that he advises his mostly male clients to scour their social media pages, and pages belonging to girlfriends, for anything that can be used by the opposition's legal team.

The article notes some smoking-gun items that Cordell's firm has discovered while mining these sites:

• In a custody case in which a mom assured the court she wasn't drinking, but her MySpace page included dated photos of her drinking.

• A case in which a mom listed herself on a dating site as single with no children.