{"id":2133,"date":"2019-12-12T05:32:26","date_gmt":"2019-12-12T10:32:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/?p=2133"},"modified":"2019-12-18T07:22:14","modified_gmt":"2019-12-18T12:22:14","slug":"can-lawyer-facebook-violate-the-rules-of-professional-conduct-in-massachusetts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/can-lawyer-facebook-violate-the-rules-of-professional-conduct-in-massachusetts\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Lawyer Facebook Violate the Rules of Professional Conduct in Massachusetts?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Massachusetts Attorney was reprimanded for a facebook post about his status. \u00a0Being friends with many lawyers in Massachusetts and all over the country, the attorney&#8217;s facebook post was typical of many attorney posts that I have seen on my newsfeed. \u00a0The Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers found that this case violated the rules of professional conduct.<\/p>\n<p>It seems so innocuous.\u00a0 An attorney updates his public Facebook page stating: \u201cBack in Boston after appearing in Berkshire Juvenile Court in Pittsfield on behalf of grandmother who was seeking guardianship of six-year-old grandson and was opposed by DCYF yesterday.\u00a0 Next date \u2013 10\/23.\u201d But is it so innocuous?\u00a0 Is the Facebook post simply an update of the day in the life of an attorney? Or is it enough information to run afoul of the Rules of Professional Conduct.\u00a0On November 6, 2019, the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers (BBO) publicly reprimanded the attorney who wrote this post.<\/p>\n<p>This is the type of situation every attorney must navigate daily. Social media forums allow attorneys to connect with potential clients, advertise the types of law practiced, comment on new case law, etc.\u00a0Regardless of an attorney&#8217;s age, experience, or length of practice, an attorney is required to stay up to date on new technology (Rule 1.1).\u00a0 In today&#8217;s world, it could be argued that Facebook, established in 2006, is not a new technology, and all attorneys should be aware of the pitfalls of any client-related posting on Facebook.<\/p>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/can-lawyer-facebook-violate-the-rules-of-professional-conduct-in-massachusetts\/\"  title=\"Continue Reading Can Lawyer Facebook Violate the Rules of Professional Conduct in Massachusetts?\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Massachusetts Attorney was reprimanded for a facebook post about his status. \u00a0Being friends with many lawyers in Massachusetts and all over the country, the attorney&#8217;s facebook post was typical of many attorney posts that I have seen on my newsfeed. \u00a0The Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers found that this case violated the rules of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lawyer-professional-conduct"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Can Lawyer Facebook Violate the Rules of Professional Conduct in Massachusetts? &#8212; Massachusetts Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog &#8212; December 12, 2019<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Massachusetts Attorney was reprimanded for a facebook post about his status. \u00a0Being friends with many lawyers in Massachusetts and all over the country, &#8212; December 12, 2019\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/can-lawyer-facebook-violate-the-rules-of-professional-conduct-in-massachusetts\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Can Lawyer Facebook Violate the Rules of Professional Conduct in Massachusetts? &#8212; Massachusetts Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog &#8212; December 12, 2019\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"A Massachusetts Attorney was reprimanded for a facebook post about his status. \u00a0Being friends with many lawyers in Massachusetts and all over the country, &#8212; December 12, 2019\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Michael DelSignore\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Can Lawyer Facebook Violate the Rules of Professional Conduct in Massachusetts? &#8212; Massachusetts Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog &#8212; December 12, 2019","description":"A Massachusetts Attorney was reprimanded for a facebook post about his status. \u00a0Being friends with many lawyers in Massachusetts and all over the country, &#8212; December 12, 2019","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/can-lawyer-facebook-violate-the-rules-of-professional-conduct-in-massachusetts\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Can Lawyer Facebook Violate the Rules of Professional Conduct in Massachusetts? &#8212; Massachusetts Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog &#8212; December 12, 2019","twitter_description":"A Massachusetts Attorney was reprimanded for a facebook post about his status. \u00a0Being friends with many lawyers in Massachusetts and all over the country, &#8212; December 12, 2019","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Michael DelSignore","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/can-lawyer-facebook-violate-the-rules-of-professional-conduct-in-massachusetts\/","url":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/can-lawyer-facebook-violate-the-rules-of-professional-conduct-in-massachusetts\/","name":"Can Lawyer Facebook Violate the Rules of Professional Conduct in Massachusetts? 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