Courts faced with ruling on discovery requests involving social media sites are forging new law. Courts can and do issue discovery orders compelling a party of a lawsuit to grant an opposing party access to his or her Facebook page or to permit in camera review of social media sites set to private settings.

Rules of Civil Procedure in most states provide for liberal discovery, e.g., "Generally, discovery is liberally allowed with respect to any matter, not privileged, which is relevant to the cause being tried." Pa.R.C.P. 4003.1; FRCP 34 (The Advisory Committee Notes instruct that the rule be read broadly and was drafted with the intent to apply to an ever evolving technological field); NYCPLR 3101 construed liberally. 

Several of the key decisions in this area include the following. In McMillen v. Hummingbird Speedway, Inc., 2010 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 270, the plaintiff claimed substantial injuries, including possible permanent impairment, loss and impairment of general health, strength, and vitality, and inability to enjoy certain pleasures of life, after he was rear-ended during a cool down lap following a July 7, 2007, stock car race. The court granted defendants' Motion to Compel Discovery and ordered the... Read More

The upcoming ABA Law Firm Marketing Strategies Conference presents a great opportunity to learn about the applicability, versatility, and growing importance of your attorney website design in promoting your legal practice.  The conference focuses on three important components of success in the legal field. These components, Reputation, Referral, and Ranking, give the conference name R³.

The conference will be held on November 8^th and 9^th, 2011 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and will be presented by the Law Practice Management Section of the American Bar Association (ABA). By holding their third event of this kind, ABA continues its tradition in providing law firms with the latest in marketing and industry news.

Two Keynote Speakers and several other speakers will present on how to best take advantage of your legal website design to grow and enhance your reputation, referrals, and rankings. The ABA faculty of attorneys and speakers will be available for discussion and questions and opportunities for networking are incorporated throughout the event. There are also social networking opportunities before and after the conference. 

Reputation

Your reputation and having the world know about you is fundamental to your success. Keynote speaker Dan Hill, President of Sensory Logic, Inc. of Minneapolis, MN will commence the conference by explaining how law firm internet marketing... Read More

US citizens expect the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to protect the country from potential threats, but the recent announcement that DHS will monitor Twitter & Facebook will surely cause privacy advocates great concern. Social Media has been used extensively in the government uprisings world-wide and DHS is now drawing up guidelines to monitor Social Media. Undersecretary of the DHS Caryn Wagner told an audience at the National Symposium on Homeland Security and Defense in Colorado Springs:

We're still trying to figure out how you use things like Twitter as a source...How do you establish trends and how do you then capture that in an intelligence product?

The DHS guidelines may cast a pall over Social Media and impact how Social Media is used and surely the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) will keep a close eye. As a matter of fact, EPIC posted a recent report from Carnegie Mellon University that found that "privacy tools designed to protect consumers from online behavioral advertising are ineffective because they are difficult for users to understand and to configure."

Everyone needs to stay tuned to see how this unfolds.

 Visit Peter Vogel's Internet, Information Technology and e-Discovery Blog

For more information about LexisNexis products... Read More

GUEST BLOG FROM JIM BRASHEAR

I welcome Jim Brashear as a Guest Blogger with his blog concerning cyber security risks. Jim is Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Nasdaq-traded Zix Corporation, the market leader in email encryption services. He frequently appears as a public speaker on corporate governance, data security and information technology legal topics. You may want to follow him on Twitter. I'm sure we will see more Guest Blogs from him in the future. 

New SEC disclosure guidance about cyber security risks

The SEC recently issued new disclosure guidance about cyber security risks. In summary, the SEC is directing public companies to review, on an ongoing basis, the adequacy of their disclosure relating to cyber security risks and cyber incidents. The disclosure guidance does not create new standards, but reminds public companies of existing disclosure requirements that may apply to cyber security risks and cyber incidents.

The bottom line is that this guidance should cause public companies, including their senior management and boards of directors, to give more attention to assessing cyber security as part of their enterprise risk assessments, because a discussion of cyber security risks and cyber incidents may become expected in public company financial disclosure. It should also prompt public companies to include these issues in their disclosure controls processes.

The... Read More

Use of remote computers has been around since at least 1964, but the current marketing buzz called Cloud Computing might make you think there's something new. However Cloud Computing is merely the newest label for the 1964 remote computing service called "Time-Sharing" at Dartmouth College using a General Electric 235 computers (and dumb terminals -Teletype 33/34). Since 1964 the same idea of using remote computing as "Time-Sharing" has a number of labels including:

ASP -Application Service Provider
SaaS - Software as a Service
PaaS -Platform as a Service

A recent legal conference included a panel discussion about Cloud legal issues, however not once did the panel ever refer to any of these prior names, and in fact the panel members acted as if the technology and legal issues included in the Cloud Computing were something new. In fact the technology and legal issues are really very old news!

What is different about Cloud Computing is that all the Internet powerhouse players offer Cloud Computing services including IBM, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Salesforce, and many more.

Visit Peter Vogel's Internet, Information Technology and e-Discovery Blog

For more information about LexisNexis products and solutions connect with us through our corporate site.

Starts:

Wednesday November 16, 2011, 09:00AM GMT

Ends:

Wednesday November 16, 2011, 12:30PM GMT

Event Type:

Training/Seminar

Location:

One America Square
London, GREATER LONDON GB

Price:

£249 (before VAT)

Website:

http://www.perfectinfo.com/currentevents.asp

Intended For:

Information manager, IT manager, Project manager, lawyer, partner, marketing manager, social media, knowledge manager, executive assistant

Organization:

 Perfect Information

This seminar will focus on two practical elements of using social media in a corporate environment. Our first speaker will explore the practical applications of social media in the work place - taking into consideration the legal implications, data security issues and advising on the practical, low-risk applications. Our second speaker will focus in on the application of SharePoint in a work environment as a social media tool. Through an in-depth insight into SharePoint as a product, he will demonstrate practical applications of both how Microsoft themselves use their own product and how others within the City have maximised on its applications.

Programme:

09.00 - 09.30

Registration and networking
Tea, coffee and light refreshments provided

09.30 - 10.45

Social Media in the Corporate Environment: applications, risks and management
Jonathan P. Armstrong
Partner, Duane Morris LLP
Author of Managing Risk: Technology and Communications)
... Read More