A few years ago, there was a blogging boom. Bloggers caught on to the fact that, by placing a journal entry online, they would have an instant audience. The allure of self-publishing has since attracted many people to join the global blogosphere.
The blogosphere encompasses all kinds of blogs – personal, professional, business and themed. It’s a largely informal, casual and instantaneous environment. However, a blog is still a type of publication and therefore it still has all the legal implications, risks and potential liabilities that you would expect.
So, should legal professionals be blogging? There are many reasons that point to the fact that it’s just too risky. As a lawyer, it’s impossible to ignore the fact that all forms of online journalism are surrounded by issues of defamation, libel and copyright. Due to our increasingly prohibitive libel laws, people are less likely to express themselves freely in the UK than in the blog-happy US, for example.
It’s fair to say the legal profession got off to a slow start with blogs; law blogs (or ‘blawgs’ ) are still in their infancy. Most commentators acknowledge that “a critical mass has yet to be reached that would see law blogging become mainstream”.
However, more and more legal professionals, firms and publications are choosing to publish blogs. For a profession which has traditionally been surrounded by formalities, a blog can provide a fairly informal outlet for expression. It can be a space for opinion as well as fact. It can be professional. It can be fun. It can add personality to a corporate brand – and that’s really our goal with this new totallylegal blog.
Blogging is a valuable tool to get across your point of view, and I would recommend legal professionals to get involved. But, as with getting up on any soapbox, you should be aware of the risks. As we’re lawyers or professionals working in the legal arena, people may consider us perfectly positioned to be aware of the limits of our opinion and imagination … at least in print! Now, we aren’t all libel lawyers but we can put our legal research skills to the test if we consider that we may be in danger of breaching libel law in the blogosphere. So, exercise some caution and happy blogging!
It’s fair to say the legal profession got off to a slow start with blogs; law blogs (or ‘blawgs’ ) are still in their infancy. Most commentators acknowledge that “a critical mass has yet to be reached that would see law blogging become mainstream”.
However, more and more legal professionals, firms and publications are choosing to publish blogs. For a profession which has traditionally been surrounded by formalities, a blog can provide a fairly informal outlet for expression. It can be a space for opinion as well as fact. It can be professional. It can be fun. It can add personality to a corporate brand – and that’s really our goal with this new totallylegal blog.
Blogging is a valuable tool to get across your point of view, and I would recommend legal professionals to get involved. But, as with getting up on any soapbox, you should be aware of the risks. As we’re lawyers or professionals working in the legal arena, people may consider us perfectly positioned to be aware of the limits of our opinion and imagination … at least in print! Now, we aren’t all libel lawyers but we can put our legal research skills to the test if we consider that we may be in danger of breaching libel law in the blogosphere. So, exercise some caution and happy blogging!
Claire Whisker
Director, totallylegal
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