American divorce lawyers and academics have stated this week that Facebook is now cited in 65 percent of all divorces in the United States, despite divorce levels remaining relatively stable in the fast few years.
Says Dr. Steven Kimmons, a clinical psychologist and marriage counsellor at Loyola University Medical Centre near Chicago (via Guardian):
We’re coming across it more and more. One spouse connects online with someone they knew from school. The person is emotionally available and they start communicating through Facebook.
A survey by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML) showed a huge jump in divorce cases citing social networking sites, with Facebook at the top at 65 percent, followed by MySpace at 14 percent and Twitter at 5 percent.
The sites weren’t only used to show off evidence of infidelity but also used in custody cases, where spouses could point out pictures of drug and alcohol use by their husband/wife.
Facebook has 600 million users worldwide.
Result for: lawyer
After reaching a $65 million settlement with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg back in 2008, ConnectU founders Tyler and Cameron Winkelvoss are now appealing the settlement.
The twins agreed to a settlement in 2008 that got them $20 million in cash and $45 million in stock, valued at $36 per share. Now, the pair are alleging that they were misled about the real value of Facebook stock in 2008, and have brought the case to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
A skeptical three judge panel began considering today whether the Winkelvoss twins have a case. They scrutinized the argument put forward by the twins through attorney Jerome Falk. “The (ConnectU) founders are pretty smart people themselves, the twins also have a father from Wharton School who is very bright,” Judge John Wallace said.
“If you have all these people to advise you, isn’t it difficult to say this is one of those things where you were taken advantage of?”
Wallace was pointing out that the settlement was reached by teams of lawyers and a top mediator. The Winkelvoss brothers had valued the Facebook stock based on a news report that Microsoft had bought a small piece of the social networking site in a deal that valued the stock at around $36, and the company at $15 billion.
Result for: lawyer
The Hollywood Reporter has reported today that producers of the recent Best Picture winning film “The Hurt Locker” are preparing to sue thousands of alleged pirates, and that the case could be filed as soon as this week.
The U.S. Copyright Group, which has sued tens of thousands of alleged torrent users this year, has teamed up with Voltage Pictures, the team behind the movie, and the filing is said to include “tens of thousands (of pirates), if not more.”
The movie was leaked to the Internet, in full DVD quality, about 6 months before its nationwide release in the U.S. Despite winning Best Picture, the film only grossed $17 million USD.
When filed, the plaintiffs must subpoena ISP records, and lawyers for the U.S Copyright Group say 75 percent of ISPs asked have cooperated in doing so.
Back in April, the Group sued 50,000 users, and says that over 40 percent have already settled with no cases going to court.
