By Dan Bushell
Is a Facebook friendship really a friendship? Can judges be “friends” with attorneys on Facebook? Florida judges and legal ethicists have been debating these questions for more than four years. Florida District Courts of Appeal have now begun to offer their opinions, as Facebook friending has emerged as an issue in motions to recuse trial court judges. But definitive answers remain illusory.
Back in 2009, the Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee of the Florida Bar thought it had resolved the issue when it released an ethics opinion weighing in on these issues. According to the JEAC’s opinion, a judge is not permitted to be Facebook friends with a lawyer who may appear before him or her.
But more than three afters that opinion was released, at an educational program discussing this topic, a justice of the Florida Supreme Court reminded appellate judges and lawyers that the JEAC’s opinion is not necessarily authoritative. The JEAC is an advisory committee, the justice pointed out, and the Supreme Court of Florida is the ultimate arbiter of legal and judicial ethics in Florida.
During the same discussion, other Florida appellate court judges offered varying viewpoints about the propriety of Facebook friending. Judges are permitted to be friends with lawyers in real life, one pointed out, so why can’t they also be Facebook friends with lawyers? Another took the view that because Facebook is so public, allowing a lawyer to list a judge as his/her Facebook friend might create a forum for a lawyer to try to woo clients by giving the impression of having special influence over the judge presiding over their cases, or might cause opposing parties to fear that the judge might be biased in favor of his/her “friend.”
The 4th DCA Frowns on Facebook Friendship
Now Facebook friendship has become an issue in litigation. In September 2012, the Fourth District Court of Appeal in West Palm Beach became the first Florida appellate court to address Facebook friendship between judges and lawyers in Domville v. State, 103 So. 3d 184 (Fla. 4th DCA 2012). Agreeing with the reasoning of the JEAC’s opinion, the 4th DCA held that a judge was required to recuse himself from a case in which the prosecutor was his Facebook friend.
It may be that the prosecutor’s Facebook friendship with the judge entailed no special influence over the judge whatsoever, the 4th DCA explained. But the existence of the
