Editorial
Front Page - Friday, December 4, 2009
I Swear...
Farewell Facebook friends
Vic Fleming
Arguably, I was a tad abrupt.
But I’d been thinking about doing it for awhile.
Last week I pulled the trigger.
I fired all my Facebook friends in Arkansas.
At a continuing legal education seminar not too long ago, I heard of a case in which a lawyer was sanctioned after it came out that, on some social networking web site, she was the Facebook equivalent of a “friend” with a witness adverse to her client in some pending case.
“A lawyer shall avoid even the appearance of impropriety.”
Another case mentioned involved a lawyer who was sanctioned for disparaging remarks made about a judge in a blog.
I wish I could write here today that I went out and researched the issues thoroughly, but I didn’t.
I wish I set forth, chapter and verse, why I “unfriended” a dozen Arkansans last week on Facebook, while leaving my cyber-relationship with a bunch of out-of-staters unmonkeyed with. But I can’t.
I have not found the time yet to do the research at the level that I want, though I hope to early next year. I’ll keep you posted.
As it was, I just had to go with some instincts and gut reactions (how different, really, is a gut reaction from an instinct?), coupled with what I hope is common sense.
As a judge with a 25,000 case-per-year docket, I have found that I have to draw different conclusions from the canons of judicial ethics than some other judges do.
No offense to the feds, but on an average Wednesday afternoon, I hear twice the number of cases that the U.S. Supreme Court decides in a year.
Thus, I felt that I had to draw a line somewhere.
I know that there are those who will argue.
“I don’t speed … I never come to Little Rock … I don’t even drive.”
Geographically, perhaps I was a bit arbitrary, but, it seems far more likely that people whom I know in Arkansas will become defendants or witnesses in Little Rock Traffic Court than that people whom I know outside the state will.
That said, I am still thinking of extending the boundary to the far borders of our adjoining states.
I made a brief announcement on my Facebook page: “With very few, as in almost no, exceptions, I need to unfriend every Facebook Friend whom I have in Arkansas. Sorry, but it is a matter of professional ethics.”
To those of you who were affected, I hope you understand.
© 2009 Vic Fleming
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