A leading Yorkshire based family lawyer has warned about the perils of criticising ex-partners on social media, after a landmark legal ruling means that defamatory comments posted online can now have expensive legal consequences.
Rachel Spencer Robb heads up LCF Law’s Family Law team and says that an ever-growing number of divorcing couples are walking a legal tightrope because social media is such a significant part of so many people’s daily lives.
This follows a recent legal case where an ex-wife implied online that her former husband had tried to kill her. During an online exchange with his new partner in 2012, Nicola Stocker said ex-husband Ronald Stocker had strangled her during an argument. The comments were visible to approximately 130 Facebook users and friends.
In 2016, Mr Stocker won a libel case against his ex-wife who was ordered to pay him £5,000 in compensation after the court ruled her comments painted him as a ‘dangerous and thoroughly disreputable man.’ She then challenged the judge’s ruling at the Appeal Court, but earlier this year the case was rejected by three senior judges and she now has to pay between £200,000 and £300,000 in costs from the initial trial, as well as the appeal.
LCF Law’s Rachel Spencer Robb says: “Going through a divorce is naturally a time of turmoil and high emotions. Clients often have negative feelings about their estranged spouses and social media can be an easy place to vent these frustrations. Complaints about social media posts are now common in divorce cases, so we always warn clients to avoid writing anything relating to their divorce on Facebook, Twitter or any other social media sites.
“The Stocker case reinforces the importance of this. The judges recognised that the Facebook posts were semi-public and that the ex-wife had written them without thinking about who else might read them. This demonstrates how hastily written remarks can easily be defamatory with expensive legal consequences, and that social media posts are the same as making comments by more traditional means.”
Rachel adds: “Ultimately though, this case should never have been allowed to escalate to this level. In tough times, a good family lawyer should calm the waters and guide clients to a point of resolution. It’s always better to talk to a trusted and experienced advisor, than to speak out on social media.”
LCF Law is a leading commercial law firm that works with both businesses and private individuals. The long-established firm employs more than 135 people across offices in Leeds, Bradford, Harrogate and Ilkley.
