Legal Commentary

Free Speech for Everyone But Lawyers

By Jeralyn

The New York Times has an article today about how lawyers are facing disciplinary actions over their blog postings and updates on Facebook and social networking sites, particularly when it comes to criticism of judges.

Lawyers are held to a different standard, because they are officers of the court.

I wonder if the standard also applies to comments written by others on blogs belonging to lawyers. Do we have a duty to read and delete comments that are offensive to judges or other lawyers?

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It's one of the reasons I don't allow personal attacks and name-calling in comments here, but since I don't have time to read all the comments on this site, I may miss a few.

And what about judges and lawyers we don't know personally? For example, there's plenty of harsh stuff all over the internet about some of the Bush appointees to the bench and the lawyers involved in the torture memos. Must lawyers be careful of how they articulate their disagreement with them or their opposition to them obtaining or holding their jobs?

The best approach is a simple one: When criticizing someone, keep it civil, avoid personal character attacks and name-calling and think before you hit the send button.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on September 13, 2009 (boomark / email).