If a spouse is suffering from an ongoing medical condition that prevents him or her from obtaining employment the other spouse may be required to pay spousal maintenance.
The “payor” spouse may believe the “recipient” spouse can work and is prolonging his or her recovery unnecessarily.
One way to monitor someone’s activity is to look at their social media accounts whether they are on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any other platform. These accounts can be easily viewed if they are “public” but it is more difficult if they are protected by privacy settings. The courts are currently wrestling with whether or not a spouse can be compelled to produce their private accounts. In one case the court was asked to order production of, among other things, the hard drives from someone’s iPhone and iPad. The lawyer argued that the owner of these devices claimed an inability to work even at a sedentary occupation and the devices would show the person’s ability to work on a computer, not to mention participate in other activities.
The court would weigh the probative value of the information against the person’s right to privacy and each case would be decided on its merits.
