Slashdot Mirror
Judges Can't "Friend" Lawyers in Florida
Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that Florida's Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee has found in a recent opinion that judges and lawyers can no longer be Facebook friends. The committee says that when judges 'friend' lawyers who may appear before them, it creates the appearance of a conflict of interest, since it 'reasonably conveys to others the impression that these lawyer "friends" are in a special position to influence the judge.' Stephen Gillers, a legal ethics expert at New York University, says the Florida rule goes too far. 'In my view, they are being hypersensitive because 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. Judges do not "drop out of society when they become judges," Gillers says. "The people who were their friends before they went on the bench remained their friends, and many of them were lawyers." Still, legal sycophants can take heart: lawyers can declare themselves Facebook "fans" of judges, the committee says, "as long as the judge or committee controlling the site cannot accept or reject the lawyer's listing of himself or herself on the site."'"
It's one of those things you either get or don't get. Personally I like Facebook because I can have a quick glance at what friends are doing (assuming they post that info) and then comment as I see fit. Relationships with people have become very watered down over the years and now can be summed up by a few lines of text on a social networking site. Some people you invest more time in and have meaningful conversations with in the real world, others you enjoy only having to put up with small tidbits.
I'm guessing you have either few friends or a lot of leisure time. I work for a living, I don't have time to constantly call friends just to stay in touch.
I'm sorry, I might be a bit behind the times but... does anybody above the age of 16 actually use Facebook?! I'm 27, and Facebook has been around for quite some time now, and I still cannot find what the appeal is. If you want to know what someone is doing, why not ask them?! You *DO* have their phone number don't you? They ARE your friend aren't they?.. At any rate, what could possibly be *fun* for a grown educated adult like a judge on Facebook? Can anyone enlighten me?
Both of my parents have Facebook. My family has become quite scattered geographically and we have a family "thread" where we post quick random updates quite frequently which I find meaningful. I'm not going to call up my whole family to tell them whether or not I liked the latest movie that I watched but I am very likely to post it in this thread. Little, seemingly trivial updates keep me up to date on how my family is doing.
Also, I would like to add that Facebook provides a nice way to share pictures. Especially if it isn't easy to get together with the people you would like to share the pictures with.
I am not saying that everyone will find Facebook has as much value to them as I find that it has for me but I do not find it a stretch of the imagination to think of real grown-up judges finding value in a social-networking site.
Didn't people have friends and relationships before the internet? what did you do just a few short years ago before facebook existed, accept a life of solitude?
Didn't people have friends and relationships before the internet? what did you do just a few short years ago before facebook existed, accept a life of solitude?
No, I just accepted that for a lot of my friends I'd eventually lose touch with forever. That wasn't a good thing.
What did I do? Missed out on a lot of chances to hang out with my friends. There are maybe a hundred people who I would call "friend". Over half of them live within an hour's travel radius of me, and most of those do something interesting and unpredictable at least a few nights a week. When I get off work, you (and your grandparent post) would propose that I call 50+ people just to find out where I can see one or more of my friends on short notice? How about I just check facebook (the only social network with reasonable event RSVPing. Or possibly read a lot of twitter/plurk posts for the same info) and see that 4 friends are going to X bar and 3 are going to see Y movie, then call one of those 7 people instead of having to interrupt 10+ people to find them?
Everyone is on Facebook. Even my mom and all of her friends. I only reluctantly signed up because all of my friends were on there. The reason I found it tolerable is because you don't really have to put much effort into it if you don't want to, and I don't post compromising information. Then an ex-girlfriend found me and sent me a six page email of her feelings and I realized what I had gotten myself into. Sometimes it is better to just disappear.