No Contact Orders Must Include Social Media (Facebook, Twitter...)

By: J. Bernstein That's right folks the internet has changed the world. With the advent of Facebook and instant messaging nobody can hide from their internet viewers. Hell, I just Googled myself and found a site that tracks my entire family history. So, what happens when a person seeks the protection of the court system and receives a no contact order? Does that order include contact through social networking sites? In my humble opinion, it must or there is no real protection.

No contact orders are an unfortunate necessity for those seeking protection from threats, intimidation and bodily harm. If an offender is ordered not to contact a victim they are prohibited from being in the physical presence of, speaking to or calling the victim. As it stands now there is a gray area when considering contact through social media such as Facebook, Linkedin, Myspace, Twitter and whatever the next web-craze ends up being.

Therefore, the formation and drafting of a the no contact order becomes even more important. All parties should be informed at the outset the parameters of the non contact. In drafting the Complaint (the way the case is brought to court--for our non lawyer friends) the plaintiff should make a conscious effort to include language such as "defendant is ordered NOT to contact plaintiff by any internet, email and/or social media, including but not limited to: America Online, Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, Facebook, Myspace, Linkedin and Twitter."

The moral of the story...a no contact order should include no poking, no picking, no tweeting, no twiting, no winking, no linking, no smooching, no smiling and most important NO CONTACTING.