Social-media policies are the hot topic in the world of employment law. Questions about the advisability of social-media policies and the legal limits on what these policies may and may not regulate continue to abound. If it’s a topic of interest, be sure to visit the Delaware Employment Law Blog, where I write about social media and workplace issues regularly.
For this legal professionals who read this blog, I’ll point out a particularly excellent resource on social-media policies: a Resource Packet for Developing Guidelines on Use of Social Media by Judicial Employees, published last year by the Judicial Conference Committee on Codes of Conduct.
The Packet includes a brief but substantive overview of some of the ethical issues arising from the use of social media by court employees, as well as a primer for those who looking for a fundamental understanding of the tools before moving to regulate those tools.
The Packet also includes sample language for use when drafting a social-media policy for judicial employees, as well as where to find such policies already in place.
Like the rules of professional conduct, which apply to lawyers’ online activities, the Code of Conduct for Judicial Employees applies to all online activities, including social medial. As explained in the Resource:
The advent of social media does not broaden ethical restrictions; rather, the existing Code extends to the use of social media.
Although directed to judicial employees, the Resource contains valuable lessons for all legal professionals, as well as for employers generally.
