Friday, February 22, 2013
ABA issues opinion on judge's use of social media
The ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility has issued a new opinion (here)
on issues relating to a judge's use of social media. Among other
topics, the opinion address whether a judge should have to disclose
electronic social media connections with lawyers or parties who
appear before the judge. Legal Ethics in Motion has a comment on the opinion here.
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I believe that every judge has the responsibility to honor the Model Code of Judicial Conduct, which states, overall, that a judge must be just and impartial, and that a judge must only do things that will maintain the "independence, integrity, and impartiality of the judiciary"; including all personal and extracurricular settings. Moreover, a judge's personal life and extracurricular obligations may not conflict with the obligations of judicial office. I also believe that a judge has the ability to both honor the Model Code of Conduct and also add friends or professional acquaintances on Facebook and LinkedIn. The Florida Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee (JEAC) deems that a judge may not connect with a lawyer that may appear before him/her in court on LinkedIn because this might cause others to doubt the impartiality of the judge; the same case for Facebook. On the other hand, the American Bar Association seems to be more lenient towards the situation. The American Bar Association or ABA considers that a judge should personally assess whether or not adding or connecting with an individual will create controversy, but that the judge should simply treat every virtual relationship as they would a relationship in real life. I agree with the view of the ABA. Judges should have full discretion with their "extrajudicial" activities, but also exercise civil freedoms. I would also like to mention that Facebook has many privacy settings that a judge might use that will maintain their profile private from the public eye; therefore, they will be able to maintain personal friends and family private and minimize the risk of conflict with their professional responsibilities.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibility/publications/model_code_of_judicial_conduct.html
http://www.legalethicsinmotion.com/2013/02/we-cant-be-friends-but-can-we-at-least-connect/
http://www.facebook.com/help/privacy#!/help/459934584025324/