Evidence
Social Networking Sites Provide Grist for Lawyers
Posted Feb 20, 2008, 02:08 pm CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Lawyers are increasingly checking out social networking websites such as Facebook.com and MySpace.com as they prepare for litigation, but two recent cases split on efforts to obtain and use such evidence.
In one case, a Nevada federal magistrate in a Jan. 9 ruling refused to allow a company accused of sexual harassment to obtain the plaintiff’s e-mails from MySpace. The company had claimed the plaintiff may have sent the e-mails “to facilitate the same types of electronic and physical relationships she characterized as sexual harassment in her complaint,” according to Litigation News, published by the ABA Section of Litigation.
The court said it appeared the company was engaged in a “fishing expedition.” The case is Mackelprang v. Fidelity National Title Agency Of Nevada Inc. (PDF).
But in Ohio v. Gaskins, a trial court permitted a statutory rape defendant tried in 2006 to introduce evidence that the alleged victim had held herself out as an 18-year-old on her MySpace page. The defendant was nonetheless convicted.
Lawyers posting comments to the online story told how they used social neworking sites—with success. One said a “supposedly injured plaintiff” had posted “cruise pictures and waterskiing pics.”
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