People receive a lot of false information during a divorce. A lot of the information is fake.
This is the same thing as how fake information spread with COVID-19. I saw on my Chinese social media that masks were selling out across Canada. Chinese families in Canada were buying them and reselling them at a large profit margin.
Many families were sending masks back to China as they had sold out weeks ago.
I went to a grocery store in a small Canadian town wondering if the masks had sold out. Apparently, they had sold out within 24 hours of the virus reportedly leaving China.
Social Media And Fake News
I highly doubt many people from Wuhan have ever visited anywhere near that town. The risk of not wearing a face mask in this town was lower than the risk of crossing the street. And yet, fear had spread faster than the virus ever could.
The most damaging part of the virus was fear. Fear caused massive damage to the Chinese economy and later on the rest of the world. In the past, you only had a voice if you could afford to own a newspaper.
Social media gave voices to people who never had them, such as minorities or victims of abuse. That is a good thing. However, it also gave voices to people who panic easily, share things without reading them or like to spread chaos.
Divorce News Spreads Like A Virus
Just like how false information causes problems in the health industry, it also causes issues in the divorce industry. Most of what people know about divorce is very damaging and leads people to do crazy things.
When people first contact our law firm, they use American terms from movies such as “alimony” and “prenuptial agreements.” This shows they haven’t done much research outside of what they have heard.
Many people think they need to fight their divorce out in court, or they will never get to see their kids again and will lose half their properties. Lawyers often do little to correct this misguided thought process.
Separation agreements are cheaper than court
If clients knew they could hire a lawyer to do a $2000 separation agreement instead of a $30,000 divorce battle, the lawyers would make less money.
Some companies have decided that lawyers will never be able to be transparent because it’s not in their best interests. Companies like Almu are not law firms, but instead middlemen between clients and lawyers. They are technology companies that have rating systems for lawyers. Lawyers that are honest and have a good rating get more work.
False information during a divorce
These companies are the next step in what Google created with their rating systems. The problem was that many marketing companies quickly realized that it was possible to create fake positive reviews for their clients and fake negative reviews for competitors. Someone could create a fake Gmail account and do reviews in minutes.
These technology companies are helping fight the fake information that exists in the legal industry.
False information spreads a lot faster than accurate information because it’s scary. When you see people around you wearing masks, you think you should too. When you read about massive divorce fees in the media, you assume that is normal.
Information During A Divorce- Try Not To Overreact To News
It’s hard to balance overreacting to something versus under-reacting. Anyone who speaks out against action is often looked at as ignorant. For this reason, it’s normally the divorce lawyer that scares the client that gets the work. The lawyer who talks about the importance of settling and mediation rarely does.
I’m calling for people to do research on health crises and when faced with a legal issue. Do your research before posting anything on social media. Don’t make things worse than they need to be. Don’t install fear in people, the world is already a scary enough place.
Author: Alistair Vigier is the CEO of ClearWay Law