Judges Can Be Facebook Friends With attorney, Florida Apex Court (SC) held By 4:3 Majority
Florida,USA, Supreme Court has ruled by 4:3 majority that Facebook friendship between a judge and an attorney appearing before him in a matter is not a sufficient ground for disqualifying him from considering that matter on the ground of likelihood of bias.
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
The petition filed by a law firm Herrsein & Herssein in a trial proceeding, seeking to disqualify a trial judge from dealing with the matter on the ground that he was a Facebook friend of an attorney who was appearing for a party in any case.
In Majority judgment was ruled that mere existence of a Facebook friendship,in and of itself, does not inherently reveal the degree or intensity of the relationship between the Facebook friends.
The Supreme Court of Florida, USA ruling settles a split between two Florida appeals courts on the question. The three dissenters argued that a judge having a Facebook friend as an attorney before him could undermine confidence in the neutrality of the courts.
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
The Majority judgment overruled a decision of subordinate court in Domville vs State, which had held that Facebook friendship with lawyer provided sufficient ground for disqualification.
Court Held that:
“A Facebook “friend” may or may not be a “friend” in the traditional sense of the word. But Facebook “friendship” is not—as a categorical matter—the functional equivalent of traditional “friendship.” The establishment of a Facebook “friendship” does not objectively signal the existence of the affection and esteem involved in a traditional “friendship.” Today it is commonly understood that Facebook “friendship” exists on an even broader spectrum than traditional “friendship.” Traditional “friendship” varies in degree from greatest intimacy to casual acquaintance; Facebook “friendship” varies in degree from greatest intimacy to “virtual stranger” or “complete stranger”,
Source: LiveLaw
var vglnk = {key: ‘b80e55c9f2ac6cd4f3d5d12d2c54c054’};
(function(d, t) {
var s = d.createElement(t);
s.type = ‘text/javascript’;
s.async = true;
s.src = ‘//cdn.viglink.com/api/vglnk.js’;
var r = d.getElementsByTagName(t)[0];
r.parentNode.insertBefore(s, r);
}(document, ‘script’));
