Example 4,323 of the Risks of Blogging and Facebook-ing

The ABA Online Journal has an interesting article discussing when lawyers become respondents in bar matters or defendants in civil cases. This blog regularly discusses the risks inherent in using social networking cites, and cautions lawyers to carefully considering those risks before becoming an online presence.

Some of the risks are obvious, some may not be. Either way, the ABA article tracks some examples of lawyers getting in trouble for their online activities. Two of the more interesting are described here:

• A lawyer requested a continuance due to a death in the family, but the Galveston, Texas, judge checked her Facebook page and discovered news of a week of drinking and partying. The judge, Susan Criss, told lawyers about the episode at the ABA Annual Meeting.

• Lawyer Frank Wilson of San Diego lost his job and got suspended from practice for 45 days for blog postings he wrote as a juror.

(The ABA Article quotes from, and references, a NY Times article that can be found here.)