I recently read Waine v Carnival PLC t/as P&O Cruises Australia [2022] NSWDC 650. This case may be of interest to students in my Torts Law class. The plaintiff was 15 weeks pregnant when she started to show signs of losing her baby. At the time she was enjoying a...
Social Media and Litigation- Using Social Media Content as Evidence and Other Notable Issues!!!
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Nothing gets people more excited than talking about owing duties of care. For the uninitiated, duty of care in a negligence action relates to whether or not a defendant owes a legal duty to another. Within a negligence action, finding a duty of care is often easily...
Social Media and Criminal Law- Revenge Porn, Cyberbullying and Harassment!!!
This week we investigated the intersection between social media and criminal law in my Social Media Law course. I will be honest and tell you I was both appalled and confused by many of the cases and incidents which are cited relating to criminal activities which take...
Many of us post about our lives on social media regularly. In fact, some may argue- ‘if it wasn’t posted on social media, did it really happen!!!’
If you are a party to litigation, this habit may create some hassles…
Let’s consider a case where a party to litigation leaves their workplace due to alleged bullying by a manager. The former employee may then proceed to argue that their state of mind has been greatly affected and there is no longer any joy in their life.
It is very likely that the opposing party will check out the social media accounts of the above party to see what you have been up to. If for example they see the former employee posting happy snaps of fun holidays and exciting overseas travel- this will likely be tendered as evidence in their case…
You may say…that is OK I have really strong privacy settings around my socials….often this won’t help!! It is likely your partner, family members or friends don’t share the same vigilance…and your content may be accessible via their platforms…
Legal practitioners have ethical obligations in relation to using social media content as evidence. Say for example, a legal practitioner created a fake profile and sent a ‘friend’ request to an opposing party, in order to harvest their information. It is likely they have breached these ethical obligations and that the content would be deemed to be inadmissible.
Another really interesting phenomenon which is growing rapidly in the US especially, relates to legal practitioners using social media to promote the key legal arguments in their client’s case. As you can imagine, this can have significant ethical and legal ramifications.
Other notable issues relate to litigation crowd funding and litigation financing. One good example of litigation crowd funding in the Australian context relates to ‘youtuber’ Jordan Shanks who employed this technique to raise money for the defamation case John Barilaro mounted against him. In addition, litigation financing relates to instances where a company provides loans to a plaintiff who is launching an action. In some cases, investors can even ‘bet’ on the outcome of cases!!