In litigation settings, a lot of issues occur where a client comes into the lawyer’s office and says, “oh, well, I hurt my leg and I think we have a lawsuit against whoever for my injury.” But then you go on their social media and see they have a bunch of different pictures of themselves doing various things that might compromise the claim. Number one, you have to adequately scrutinize that to determine if the client really has a potential manner of telling you the truth.
A lot of questions come up with “what do I tell my client?” “Can I advise my client to change their privacy settings?” Yes, you can advise your client to change the privacy settings for the use of social media and there you’ll see the PBA ethics opinion 2014-300. Now, it’s a little bit dated at this point, but it does give you a general overview about advising clients on the use of social media.
Meet Scott Eberle
Scott Eberle is on several insurance carriers defense panels. He’s been doing this type of work for many years. In my opinion, he’s one of the best presenters of legal malpractice and how to prevent it. So I think you’re in for a treat in terms of taking back some good information that you can implement in your firms.
“My name is Scott Eberle, I am an attorney at Burns White in Pittsburgh where my practice focuses on representation of professionals, lawsuits and ethics matters. I’m focused on representation of lawyers in legal malpractice lawsuits, as well as ethics issues either in front of the office of disciplinary Council, or just general ethics consultation. I help attorneys navigate the issues that come up in their practice and I’m able to provide guidance on what you need to do to follow the rules of professional conduct to not get yourself in potential trouble with the disciplinary council.”