Facebook and the law: Part 1

Facebook and the Law: Part 1

Facebook has become a part of daily life for millions of people over the last few years. It’s only natural then that it would start to become more and more relevant to the legal world too. In what way is this happening?

1.                  “Anything you say (online) may be used as evidence against you in a court of law”. We need to be really careful about what we say and post online. Note the case earlier this year of the taxi driver who posted a video of someone leaving his taxi without paying. A novel idea in itself of trying to get people to pay their debts in difficult times. But some bright spark incorrectly identified the non-payer, paving the way for days of litigation in the High Court, with multiple defendants all having to pay large legal teams to show why they weren’t at fault. As Mr. Justice Peart said, the combined costs of the legal team would have bought a very decent house in any part of the country. (Nice work if you can get it!). See McKeogh –v- John Doe 1 & Others [2012] IEHC 95.

2.                  If you’re already involved in legal proceedings, facebook can be used to prove or disprove your claims. So if you’re claiming that you are seriously injured and unable to work, but the photos on your facebook page show that you’ve been living it up recently, don’t expect a great day in court. And do expect that someone will be looking!

3.                  Are you allowed to use facebook at work? Does your employer have a policy for internet / social media use? If they do, do you know about it? You could be at risk of disciplinary action. Or maybe as an employer you're sick of employees spending your time on social media sites and want to know what you can do about it. Maybe you want employees to spend more time on social media sites (if they’re promoting your business that is).

This is just a brief observation of the way facebook has reached into our legal lives. More to follow shortly.

Maria O’ Donovan, Associate Solicitor

Wolfe & Co., Market Street, Skibbereen, Co. Cork

Maria.odonovan@wolfe.ie
See www.wolfe.ie for more information

Frustrated solicitor!

This morning was another example of how frustrating our Court system can be! Having spent 3 years preparing a case for trial I was eventually given a scheduled hearing date for this week. The case is not a local one so travel arrangements had to be made, both for me and for my clients who would be coming from the UK. At the last minute, the other party requested an adjournment, saying that he had a hospital appointment for the same day. As the case had not been listed for hearing before I could jump up and down and object about delaying tactics as much as I like, the chances are a request for an adjournment will be granted.

While I wouldn’t begrudge anyone a visit to their doctor – hospital waiting lists are another frustration of modern life in Ireland – that it fell on the same day as the trial date was annoying to say the least. It doesn’t seem entirely unreasonable to think that if a case can’t go ahead on a Tuesday, maybe it could be dealt with on another day in the same week. Not in our system – an adjournment means that your case gets put back to the next list. In a rural court venue, the next list could be six months later.

In my case I suppose I’m lucky. The case should be dealt with at the end of January. But - can I guarantee this for my clients? No. Can I tell them to book their flights (again) for a specified date? No, as I won’t know what date the case will be listed for again until probably mid-January. The best I can tell them is that I hope the case will be listed in January, and I hope that no further requests for adjournments are made. How satisfactory is this?

Maria O’ Donovan

Wolfe & Co. Solicitors, Market Street, Skibbereen, Co. Cork

Maria.odonovan@wolfe.ie