Woman Loses Marital Support after Belly Dancing

Pasadena alimony attorneys have been coming across more and more instances of people complicating their other divorce proceedings, child support or alimony matters through uninhibited opinions expressed via social media. In an example of this, a New York woman who blogged about her love for belly dancing after she claimed that she needed marital support because of a back injury, has lost her claim for maintenance.

The woman, Dorothy McGurk had requested for $850 in support from her ex-husband. She had worked as a legal secretary before the divorce, but she claimed that she had been unable to return to work because of a car accident she had been involved in on her second wedding anniversary. The accident she alleged, had left her with at least two back injuries, and she constantly needed pain medications. Before the divorce trial, the judge awarded her $850 in maintenance.

However, that maintenance payment began to look quite shaky after the judge saw blog posts in which McGurk waxed eloquent about her love for belly dancing. In some posts, she mentioned that she'd “danced herself silly”, and in others, she mentioned that she danced every day. Once the dancing habit was revealed in court, McGurk tried to claim that she had been prescribed belly dancing as a form of physical therapy by her doctor. However, her doctor denied any knowledge of this.

A New York judge has now denied her request for $850 in marital support a month.

It is the first piece of advice Pasadena divorce lawyers would give anybody who's even considering a divorce - if you like to blog, stop blogging immediately. If you're on Facebook, shut down your account and if you're on Twitter, cease tweeting. On the Internet, on social media like blogs, and social networking sites like Facebook, it's too easy for a person to feel anonymous. Unfortunately, this could prove disastrous to your divorce proceedings or your alimony or marital support claim.