Legal News

Judges,lawyers must unfriend on Facebook

By Glen Ashman

Judges, lawyers must 'unfriend' on Facebook

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) ? Florida's judges and lawyers should no longer "friend" each other on Facebook, the popular social networking site, according to a ruling from the state's Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee.  At least one South Florida judge warned her pals with a Facebook status update that they could be "unfriended," and the ruling has prompted others to do the same. The committee ruled Nov. 17 that online "friendships" could create the impression that lawyers are in a special position to influence their judge friends.  The committee did conclude that a judge can post comments on another judge's site and that during judicial elections, a judge's campaign can have "fans" that include lawyers. And the ruling doesn't single out Facebook...Although only the Florida Supreme Court can actually mandate what judges can do, most will likely follow the ruling out of an abundance of caution

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The Florida panel is just plain wrong on this one.

From the NY Times:

Stephen Gillers, a legal ethics expert at New York University, said the Florida rule went too far. ?In my view, they are being hypersensitive,? Professor Gillers said. He noted that the differences within the committee probably indicated a generational gap, which Judge Jones said was not the case. In the case of a truly close friendship between a judge and a lawyer involved in a case, the other side can simply seek to disqualify the judge, Professor Gillers said. Judges do not ?drop out of society when they become judges,? he said. ?The people who were their friends before they went on the bench remained their friends, and many of them were lawyers.?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/11/us/11judges.html

Full post as published by It's (Barely) Legal on December 11, 2009 (boomark / email).