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Legal News

: Legal Blog Watch

Lawyers and Social Media: A Force for Good or 'Evil'?

By Bruce Carton

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An article in Saturday's New York Times highlighting the hazards of attacking a judge in a law blog has sparked a variety of reactions from lawyers. Back in 2006, criminal defense attorney Fred Conway lashed out at a Florida state judge, labeling her an "EVIL, UNFAIR WITCH" and "seemingly mentally ill" in this post on JAABlog, which covers the Broward Country court system. This bit of free expression earned Conway a reprimand and a $1,200 fine from the Florida Bar earlier this year, and also set off a First Amendment battle in the Florida Supreme Court. A search for "evil witch" in the Quest search box at the top of this page shows a range of reactions this week among fellow legal bloggers. Kevin O'Keefe, CEO of LexBlog, believes the article was a "disservice to the American lawyer and the public we serve" because it flagged "isolated incidents where lawyers have run into trouble because of ill-advised blog posts." Kevin writes that, notwithstanding these isolated examples, "the good things achieved by lawyers through the use of the net and social media far outweigh the bad." The WisBlawg had the opposite reaction, observing that "the type of comments made by Conway...

Full post as published by Legal Blog Watch on September 18, 2009 (boomark / email).