Florida Judges and Lawyers Not Allowed to be Facebook Friends

Sunday, December 13, 2009
Florida Judge John Kastrenakes has 103 friends on Facebook

Friending a Florida judge on Facebook is okay as long as you’re not an attorney. So says the state’s Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee, which ruled last month it’s better that justices and lawyers not give the wrong impression of being virtual friends on the Internet, lest people suspect them of impropriety. “The committee believes that listing lawyers who may appear before the judge as ‘friends’ on a judge's social networking page reasonably conveys to others the impression that these lawyer ‘friends’ are in a special position to influence the judge,” reads the opinion. The ruling comes despite the fact that most judges in Florida don’t have Facebook pages, according to The Palm Beach Post.

-Noel Brinkerhoff
 
For Judges on Facebook, Friendship Has Limits (by John Schwartz, New York Times)
Opinion Number: 2009-20 (Florida Supreme Court)

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