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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."'"
Gives new meaning to the term "throwing the book" at you...
When are we going to realize that the further we push issues like this, the more damage we're doing to our society. Pretty soon it's going to be illegal to look at someone if they're having a bad hair day assuming it's Thursday of the 5th month with a full moon happening within 3 days.
Is lonely because no one wants to friend him in Facebook.
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
of how social networks are only going to bite you in the ass eventually.
Of course, there's no problem if they all play golf together at their country club. It's the "appearance" of conflict of interest thats the problem here, not the "actual" conflict of interest that goes on all the time.
Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is the headlight of an oncoming train.
If Hollywood has taught me anything about the Judiciary system, its that the prosecution and the judge are always the best of friends, know each other by first name, and might even have a heart to heart during recess.
Seriously though, I'm sure it'd be more beneficial if they tried to stop the ACTUAL conflict of interest instead of trying to stop THE APPEARANCE of conflict of interest.
This is just dumb; you're still going to have conflict of interest anyway because these people are most like friends outside of facebook.
Frankly, if I had to go before a court, I definitely would be very perturbed if the opposing lawyer was a friend of the judge-- yes, even a "facebook friend."
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
I with you on it making sense. Also, if a lawyer feels really great about his chance of a victory and posts that he's about to win his case, the judge would see that update. Then if the judge rules in his favor it gives the appearance that the lawyer received foreknowledge of a ruling. If it doesn't go his way, the judge could be argued to have ruled the other way to avoid the appearance of impropriety.
It's easier to just separate them, because in every court case someone will be unhappy with the outcome and looking for something to blame it on.
if a lawyer and judge are facebook friends then they are automatically unable to work together.
Right now you ban the record of the friendship so the best of buds can work the same case.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Whether or not they declare it in Facebook, judges and lawyers do "friend" in real life. You have to wonder how often a judge gives a lawyer a break because of this. What the Facebooking of friends does is lift the veil off this and make bias easier to spot. I would say it's a good thing, and what I'd really like to see is computers used for a deeper statistical analysis of courtroom decisions by judges with certain lawyers.
I'm sure the legal profession would hate the very idea of this, but these days judges seemed vastly disconnected from society. Every time I hear a judge screech "*My* court" or make a dumb ass decision it's apparent they've forgotten they're nothing more than pubic servants, albeit overpaid and wearing silly black capes and/or pompous wigs. This is theater only the very rich can afford to participate in. The whole legal system needs to be tossed out on it's ass and reinvented from scratch.
That's nonsense. Lawyers are usually friends with many lawyers. Some of those lawyers will end up as judges. Are you saying that they have to stop being friends the moment another lawyer becomes a judge? Judges and lawyers are going to run into each other socially as well. Would you require them to completely ignore each other anytime they see each other outside the courtroom?
Judges and lawyers are people too. If you start putting ridiculous restrictions on them, you are going to find less people willing to enter the profession.
As the article states, Judges already must recuse themselves if one of the lawyers is a *close* personal friend. That's reasonable. However, there is a huge difference between a "close personal friend" and a "Facebook" friend. Most people on Facebook have *many* Facebook friends. A Facebook friend is not necessarily anything more than an acquaintance. No one would force a Judge to recuse herself just because the Judge has *met* one of the lawyers before... so why should we require recusal for being friends on Facebook, which could mean even less?
I fail to see a conflict of interest if the defense lawyer and the prosecutor are both "friends" of the judge.
Unless of course you start weighing how much each friend means to the judge, relatively speaking.
But that path leads to madness.
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I do call my friends. At least the ones that I hang out with regularly. However, it's just not possible to maintain friendships with the hundreds of people I've met over the years - though I would still like to stay in touch. Traditionally these were the people who you'd get a Christmas card from with a quick update on what they've been up to once a year. Facebook allows you to stay in closer contact without having to devote hours a day to calling everyone you know.
For example, I was going skiing a couple weeks ago. I noticed on facebook that one of my elementary school friends was going to the same mountain the same day. I suggested we meet there for lunch - we did and spent an hour catching up.
That's the benefit of facebook.
I recently had the privilege of serving as a juror in a DUI trial. I was quite pleased to discover that the Judge appeared unbiased, if not slightly more lenient towards the defense.
Also, the defense attorney poked so many holes in the prosecutor's argument: that the jury only had to deliberate for about ten minutes. I was absolutely shocked to learn that he was a public defender.
On top of that, the defendant was a black male from the city while the jury was entirely white suburbanites.
Going into the trail, I expected that the system was going to screw the defendant, but the Judge showed no bias, the Public Defender was competent, and the Jury presumed the defendant to be innocent. Now I feel like the media is full of shit.
They really are disconnected from society. Same with the police. If you've ever ready about or spoken to someone in a police academy, you will know that they encourage recruits to only hang out with other law enforcement officers, to only play in their sports leagues, et cetera; it indoctrinates a "us" vs "the public" mentality that follows the officer for the rest of their life. I don't know if that translates to the situation of the judges, but one can presume that an individual given such immense power, a sizeable paycheque, and so little accountability as a judge soon enough develops little connection to "everyone else."
I am starting to think that they are acting to protect the legal profession; if the lawyers and judges are publicly posting their relationship, later on someone can cry foul about it, if they don't publish the notice, there is less to cry foul about it.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
Yeah, it's important that we avoid the appearance of impropriety. Especially if actual impropriety is occurring.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
Use MySpace!
Yeah, and if Hitler were alive and on Facebook today
If Hitler was alive and on the internet we'd know how WW2 would have gone....
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.