So a lawyer & judge are Facebook friends.
So what?
The ABA Journal has the story of an appellate court’s decision that a Facebook friendship with a lawyer, without more, is not a sufficient basis to disqualify a judge. The order is here.
This makes sense to me. As with almost everything tech-related, I try to use analogies to non-tech stuff. For example, if you learned that a lawyer who regularly appeared before a judge belonged to the same health club, or went to the same church, or was in the same law school class as the judge my guess is that you wouldn’t reflexively yell “conflict! disqualify the judge!”
No, you might ask something as simple as, “do they actually know each other? If so, how well? Do they do stuff together?”
In my view, Facebook is no different. Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal agrees. (there’s no “s” – maybe the court only hears one case at at time). The opinion presents a fantastic analysis of what it means, if anything, to be Facebook friends with someone.
Here are my favorite paragraphs from the ABA Journal’s post. They include a quote from the opinion.
“Though a Facebook friendship may have once given the impression of a close friendship, that’s no longer the case, the Third District Court of Appeal said in explaining its disagreement with the other appeals court. Facebook uses data mining and network algorithms to suggest potential friends, and many Facebook users have thousands of friends, the appeals court said.
“ ‘To be sure,’ the opinion said, ‘some of a member’s Facebook ‘friends’ are undoubtedly friends in the classic sense of person for whom the member feels particular affection and loyalty. The point is, however, many are not. A random name drawn from a list of Facebook ‘friends’ probably belongs to casual friend, an acquaintance, an old classmate, a person with whom the member shares a common hobby, a ‘friend of a friend’ or even a local celebrity like a coach.’ ”
Ab, yes. A local celebrity. Like a coach. Music to my ears.
