Social Networking Sites Provide Fertile Ground for Lawyers, Potential Problems for Employers
Brilliance Business Solutions, Milwaukee-based website design and search engine optimization firm, has invited me to post on the Brilliance blog. I will briefly discuss the use of social networking sites by lawyers and employers. The information that’s available on any one person has multiplied astronomically in the last few years.
Some information is put out on the web in first-person format (facebook, myspace, etc.) and some is put out there by others (check out Sorry I Missed Your Party and the facebook open group 30 Reasons Girls Should Call It a Night ). Regardless of how it gets there, the information can come back to haunt you.
These sorts of sites provide fertile ground for lawyers seeking to obtain information about a plaintiff or witness. Employers doing due diligence before hiring may run across all sorts of things that should not impact the hiring decision, but why take the chance? That applies equally to either – it’s no good for the potential employee, and creates the possibility of litigation for an employer who misuses the information.
For lawyers, doing a quick search on the deponent or party is always a good idea. You never know what might be behind the next mouse click.
