Ride the Lightning
Cybersecurity and Future of Law Practice Blog
by Sharon D. Nelson Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc.
Judge Who Do Their Own Internet Research: Shark-Infested Waters
November 13, 2012
The Summer/Fall issue of the ABA's Litigation magazine contained a fascinating article entitled "The Lure of the Internet and the Limits on Judicial Fact Research." I watch for stories like this at the behest of our friend D.C. Superior Court Judge Herbert Dixon so I can forward them along and he can add them to his formidable lecture repertoire.
Even Judge Dixon hadn't seen some of the stories cited in this article, so if the subject interests you, you may want to get a copy of the magazine. Sorry, no online link.
In one case, a North Carolina judge hearing a child custody dispute "friended" the husband's attorney on Facebook and posted on his wall the remark that he had "two good parents to choose from" to which the attorney replied, "I have a wise judge." Not so wise of course. The judge also looked up the wife's photography business and poetry through Google.
Clearly, it is inane for a judge to comment on a case in which he is involved on social media. But more than that, a judge who wants to do independent fact research swims, as the author notes, in shark-invested waters. A judge here in Fairfax has been reprimanded for doing precisely that.
The article makes it clear that the waters are not only shark-infested but muddy. What precisely is allowed and when is less clear than you might think. Well worth a read to understand the fog that surrounds this topic.
Listen to the Podcast
