Social Media Marketing and Ethics Blog for Lawyers

A group of consumers who unsuccessfully sued Facebook for using their names and photos in ads will not have to pay the social networking service’s legal bills, according to Media Post. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Seeborg rejected Facebook’s attempt to recoup $700,000 in attorneys’ fees following its successful dismissal of a lawsuit about whether […]

  Earlier this week, I summarized recent federal district court decisions addressing whether social media accounts can be considered protectable trade secrets.  In each of these cases, a former employees retained the login credentials for their employers’ business social media accounts, refused to turn over the credentials, and used the information and friends list in […]

Social media has become an increasingly important tool for businesses to market their products and services. As the use of social media in business continues to grow, companies will face new challenges with respect to the protection of their confidential information and business goodwill. One of those potential challenges is protecting valuable social media information […]

Reporters who tweet from the courtroom during trial are a growing trend, however, some litigants object on the grounds that such practice distracts from the court proceedings. Most recently, in the high-profile trial of the man accused of killing the family of singer/actress Jennifer Hudson, the court has barred reporters from tweeting or posting messages to […]

In a landmark ruling, a U.K. judge has paved the way for high court claims to be served via Facebook for the first time in the U.K., the Daily Business Review reports. Lawyers for broker TFS Derivatives may use the social networking site to track down its former employee Fabio de Biase as part of […]

After Yahoo sued Facebook in March for patent infringement, the social networking site fired back earlier this month with a countersuit claiming that Yahoo is infringing on ten of Facebook’s patents, the Daily Business Review reports. Facebook alleges that Yahoo is violating patents covering services such as its homepage, content optimization, relevance engine, photo-sharing service […]

Maryland lawmakers are in the process of passing legislation prohibiting employers from asking current and prospective employees for their user names and passwords to social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, according to The Baltimore Sun. Employers across the country are frequently requesting access to potential hires’ social media pages to weed out unwanted […]

Legal Blog Watch reports that companies like Boloco, a Boston burrito restaurant, are using their own social media followers and community to try to solve crime s such as the theft of a safe from one of their stores. According to its article featured in the Daily Business Review, Boloco posted the following to its […]

Earlier this year, the JAPCA Ethics Alert Blog reported on San Diego Bar Opinion 2011-2 (May 24, 2011) addressing a hypothetical involving a lawyer who represents former employees in an employment lawsuit and sends “friend” requests on social media websites to higher level employees of the opposing party/employer identified by the client as being disgruntled. Here’s a […]

A Sarasota man who allegedly “friended” the defendant in a case while serving on a jury could face jail time next week if found guilty of disregarding a judge’s orders, according to WTSP.com. Jacob Jock was selected to be part of a jury for a car accident case back in December. Jock was dismissed from […]