Category: Facebook

Court Orders Lawyer to Mislead Client to get Access to Facebook – Sparks v. Dubé

by John McKiggan

Defendants are becoming more and more aggressive about trying to get information from social media sites like Facebook.

In what has to be one of the most egregious invasions of privacy that I have ever seen, an insurance company in New Brunswick made an ex parte (secret) application to court requesting a judge to order a plaintiff to turn over copies of all the information contained on her social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and My Space.

The most unbelievable part of the decision is that the plaintiff’s lawyer was ordered by the judge to take part in the deception.

Insurers May Be Using Facebook to Underwrite Policies

by John McKiggan

Insurers Using Social Media

There was an interesting article in Lawyers Weekly pointing to developments in the United States where insurance companies are using information collected from public social media sites such as Facebook, My Space and Twitter to conduct risk assessments when underwriting insurance policies.

The article indicates that Canadian insurance companies are watching the developments “very closely” according to Mark Kline, a spokesman for the Insurance Bureau of Canada. According to Kline: