By: Danielle Ulman

Hold it right there, all you social-media loving legal eagles. Before you go ahead and “friend” a represented party, you might want to take a gander at this ethics opinion from the San Diego County Bar Association.

According to the opinion, making a friend request of a represented party could be a violation of the county’s professional code of ethics and be grounds for discipline. Of course, bar association ethics opinions aren’t binding on the courts and should be used as professional guidelines.

Yes, it’s an ethics opinion from the left coast, but this could easily be considered in other places since lawyers are making wide use of the Internet for research.

A session at the MSBA conference in Ocean City this month recommended that lawyers use Facebook to review jurors and clients in litigation. Just be careful before you hit that “send friend request” button.

Hat tip: The Recorder on Law.com