Advocate Jan 2014
Advocate Jan 2014
Advocate Jan 2014
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THE ADVOCATE VOL. 72 PART 1 JANUARY <strong>2014</strong><br />
57<br />
term of service to inveigle your way into viewing private information?<br />
There is tension between tech-savvy competence—knowing what you can<br />
do—and compliance with other ethical norms—what you may do.<br />
In the context of fast-paced technological innovation, it’s rarely the case<br />
that ethical and competency norms are simultaneously apparent.<br />
E-mail was long in use before the Law Society of British Columbia’s<br />
Ethics Committee finally opined in April 1998 5 that e-mail communication<br />
was not, in and of itself, a violation of the ethical duty of confidentiality<br />
under the old Professional Conduct Handbook. Likewise, the use of thirdparty<br />
service providers for electronic data storage and processing of confidential<br />
client information, or “cloud computing”, was commonplace for<br />
many practitioners before the due diligence guidelines of the Cloud Computing<br />
Working Group were issued over two years ago.<br />
As we devise another year of training programs for <strong>2014</strong>, we look forward<br />
to offering guidance through training and other library resources to make<br />
your ascent to competence less perilous. Please visit our Stream blog 6 for a<br />
<strong>Jan</strong>uary <strong>2014</strong> post on tips for using social media responsibly in litigation.<br />
ENDNOTES<br />
1. Also called “Web 2.0”, the social web refers to the<br />
online manifestation of social relations through networking<br />
services like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and<br />
other sites where user-generated content is key.<br />
2. Chapter 3, Rule 1(c) of the former Professional<br />
Conduct Handbook.<br />
3. 2013 SKQB 127.<br />
4. Simon Chester, Doug Jasinski and Steve Matthews<br />
presented interesting materials on “Ethically Growing<br />
Your Practice with Social Media” at the 2013<br />
Pacific Legal Technology Conference. They cover a<br />
range of ethical pitfalls relating to the social web.<br />
Materials are available for a fee through the Trial<br />
Lawyers Association of B.C.<br />
5. “Advice to the Profession Regarding Transmission of<br />
Confidential Information over the Internet”, (1998) 3<br />
Benchers Bulletin (June–July) at 8.<br />
6. The Stream features practice-oriented posts from<br />
Courthouse Libraries B.C. staff and guest bloggers.<br />
See online: .<br />
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