The Professional Ethics Committee has appointed a subcommittee to draft a proposed advisory opinion regarding the issue of lawyers advising clients to "clean up" their social media pages pre-litigation. The 4 questions to be addressed are as follows: 1) Pre-litigation, may a lawyer advise a client to remove posts, photos, videos, and information from social media pages/accounts that are related directly to the incident for which the lawyer is retained; 2) Pre-litigation, may a lawyer advise a client to remove posts, photos, videos, and information from social media pages/accounts that are not related directly to the incident for which the lawyer is retained; 3) Pre-litigation, may a lawyer advise a client to change social media pages/accounts privacy settings to remove the pages/accounts from public view; and 4) Pre-litigation, must a lawyer advise a client not to remove posts, photos, videos and information whether or not directly related to the litigation if the lawyer has advised the client to set privacy settings to not allow public access?
The Standing Committee on Advertising will consider adopting Proposed Advisory Opinion A-14-1 on the issue of lawyers’ participation in the social networking site LinkedIn, including LinkedIn’s endorsements feature, as a topic of interest among a significant number of Florida Bar members at the request of The Florida Bar Board of Governors.
Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee 2009-20
Issues Addressed:
- Whether a judge may post comments and other material on the judge's page on a social networking site, if the publication of such material does not otherwise violate the Code of Judicial Conduct.
ANSWER: YES
- Whether a judge may add lawyers who may appear before the judge as "friends" on a social networking site, and permit such lawyers to add the judge as their "friend."
ANSWER: NO
- Whether a committee of responsible persons, which is conducting an election campaign on behalf of a judge's candidacy, may establish a social networking page which has an option for persons, including lawyers who may appear before the judge, to list themselves as "fans" or supporters of the judge's candidacy, so long as the judge or committee does not control who is permitted to list himself or herself as a supporter.
ANSWER: YES
- Whether a committee of responsible persons, which is conducting an election campaign on behalf of a judge's candidacy, may post material on the committee's page on a social networking site, if the publication of the material does not otherwise violate the Code of Judicial Conduct.
ANSWER: YES
Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee 2012-12
Issues Addressed:
- Whether a judge may add lawyers who may appear before the judge as "connections" on the professional networking site, Linked In, or permit such lawyers to add the judge as their "connection" on that site?
ANSWER: NO
Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee 2012-12
Issues Addressed:
- May a judge running for re-election create a Twitter account with a privacy setting open so anyone — including lawyers — would be able to follow the account?
ANSWER: YES, under specified circumstances.
- May the judge’s campaign manager create and maintain the Twitter account instead of the judge?
ANSWER: YES