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Useful data from the US on social media

Social media law is becoming an increasingly important area of law impacting on areas such as employment law, defamation, privacy, family law and human rights.

Things are moving very fast, as with all things relating to the new digital world we live in. Trends in the legal interpretation of social media activity in the USA are worth noting for the future of English law in this area.

In a recent US study :-

• 43% of businesses have had issues relating to employee misuse of social media at work
• 30% of businesses surveyed have taken disciplinary action against employees relating to social media use
• Both employers and employees are becoming increasingly aware that social media may be a useful source of evidence in court claims, although most are unclear as to where the lines are drawn in terms of what can be legitimately accessed and used in evidence at court.

Two recent cases from the Inidianma and New York states courts indicate that courts are becoming increasingly receptive to social media activity evidence and in particular that as part of the vital disclosure discovery) obligations on all parties in litigation, it is likely to be legitimate for parties to request social media activity evidence from each other, although again, this is unlikely to be total disclosure and the  extent of disclosure in this area is still a developing area of law worldwide.

Probate research

Saga, the highly successful specialist services provider for the over 50’s, is moving into the legal services market, and as part of it’s initial moves it is marketing for probate and has commissioned and undertaken some research. The findings are summarized below :-

• It claims that by not shopping around up to 5% of the value of an estate is being lost on fees, which has an average value of some £7,200.00.
• Of 11,000 surveyed, some 90% of older people currently opt to make a will and have probate dealt with by solicitors. Saga claims probate can be dealt with much more cheaply than the average, it says of about a 5% charge on the value of the estate
• Just over 60% of those surveyed said they may shop around for probate services when it is necessary and where other options to solicitors are available
• some 500,000 pass away each year