Anthony B. Haller
Michael G. Trachtman
"Technology is always ahead of the law. And the law struggles to catch up," attorney George Kounoupis said. "Not much has changed since the first caveman brought in fire."
Tonight at 7 on the Philadelphia CNN-News affiliate WFMZ-TV, The American Law Journal presents, "Facebook, Blogs and the Boss: The Intersection of Social Media and the Workplace" with host Christopher Naughton and employer's counsel Anthony B. Haller of Blank Rome, Michael G. Trachtman, counsel for the MidAtlantic Employers' Association, and employee's counsel Kounoupis of Hahalis & Kounoupis.
"We're sort of in an evolutionary stage of social media sites and how the law deals with them," Haller said. "We have had a number of cases where there have been direct threats of violence on a Facebook page. The employer cannot ignore that. ... If someone [says] something really offensive about a female employee [on a Facebook page] ... the employer has to treat that as ... a normal complaint of sexual harassment in the workplace."
"The problem," Trachtman said, "when employers do monitor the sites is they find out things they are not supposed to know. The dust is nowhere close to being settled. All the dust that's going to be in the air is not even in the air yet."
The American Law Journal airs Monday nights at 7 and Sundays at 5:30 p.m. on the CNN-News affiliate for Philadelphia, WFMZ-TV 69. See http://bit.ly/ALJchannels for all cable and satellite systems. FiOS system subscribers tune to channel 15. This program will be available on www.LawJournalTV.com as well as You Tube after it airs.
Next week on The American Law Journal: "Family Law, Private Investigation and Social Media." •
