Linked – For Lawyers, Social Media Creates More Headaches Than Friendships

“One panelist, U.S. Magistrate Judge Kristen Mix, who sits in Colorado, said the first thing lawyers need to remember is that most judges don’t have Facebook pages, and may know about how the site works only through their grandchildren’s explanations.

“Our understanding is nowhere near as thorough as complete as if we were users,” said Mix.”

And yet, when it comes to making legal decisions about social media evidence, those decisions are left in the hands of lawyers and judges who admit to not using them or understanding how they work?

I wouldn’t be proud of that. Would you?

Look, the article is absolutely correct. Data is being created in millions of different places that didn’t exist even a couple of years ago. That data could be evidence. That data could be the most important piece of information about a case.

That’s why bar associations are laying down rules that say lawyers need to be competent or hire someone who is, when it comes to dealing with this data. More and more, cases hinge on data that is not being created on a local computer, but online, in various networks, websites, cloud storage locations and so on. Not understanding how these things work is not an excuse to not do your job.

For Lawyers, Social Media Creates More Headaches Than Friendships

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