Evidence

Congress enacted the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”) in 1935 to protect the rights of employees and employers, to encourage collective bargaining, and to curtail certain private-sector labor and management practices that can harm the general welfare of workers, businesses, and the economy. The NLRA affords certain rights to employees to join together to improve wages and working conditions, […]

Developing a social media policy makes business and legal sense. A social media policy assists companies in managing employee social media use in order to limit exposure to costly legal problems. Indeed, employers can be held vicariously liable for legal and regulatory liability arising out of their employee’s social media use. Employers may be held […]

In Davenport v. State Farm Mutual Insurance Company, 3:11-CV-632-J-JBT, 2012 WL 555759 (M.D. Fla. Feb. 21, 2012) the defendant in a personal injury action requested “[a]ll photographs posted, uploaded, or otherwise added to any social networking sites or blogs, including but not limited to Facebook.com, Myspace.com, Twitter.com, or any similar websites posted since the date […]

Social media use in the workplace continues to increase. According to an August 2012 national corporate survey, 75 percent of employees access social media on the job from their workplace computers or personal mobile devices at least once a day. Their primary purpose for using social media at work is to connect with other employees […]

In a case of first impression, a Florida appellate court held that a Florida law prohibiting certain written threats can reach statements posted on Facebook, the Daily Business Review reports. Timothy Ryan O’Leary was charged with two counts of violating Florida Statute 836.10 for what he wrote on his personal page. Under the statute, a person who “writes […]

An Oklahoma mother was arrested for allegedly attempting to sell her children on Facebook, Mashable reports. Misty VanHorn, a mother of two in Oklahoma, was arrested last month for alleged trafficking of minors on Facebook by offering her 10-month old and her 2 year-old for $4,000. According to the police report, VanHorn offered the kids several […]

As recently as a few years ago, authentication proved to be a substantial hurdle for an attorney seeking to admit social media content into evidence. Recent decisions, however, reveal a trend toward admission reports Corporate Counsel. The Rules of Evidence require that evidence must first be “authenticated” prior to be admitted at trial. It requires a showing that […]

A Hawaii man who posted a video of cracking open a beer bottle and taking a swig while driving on the LiveLeak video-sharing website is later arrested by the police for consuming alcohol while driving a motor vehicle, CNN reports. The man, Richard Godbehere, posted the clip in February under the title “Let’s Go Driving, Drinking!” to […]

A Miami-Dade judge declared a mistrial in a murder case after a defense lawyer posted a photo of her client’s leopard-print underwear on Facebook, according to the Miami Herald. The defendant in a murder trial accused of stabbing his girlfriend to death received clothes from his family to wear during trial. When Miami-Dade corrections officers lifted […]

At the crossroads of social media discovery, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. The appropriate balance of discovery and privacy depends on the particular facts and circumstances of each case, a careful analysis of applicable law, the requested content, and the user’s expectation of privacy. No matter which direction the law proceeds, lawyers must be aware of […]