This was a pretty neat news snippet I saw the other day. In an interesting case that is sure to cause Family Courts around the country to start giving this issue some thought, a New York judge recently decided that a Myspace "friend request" could violate a TRO or temporary restraining/protection order. I would imagine this is applicable also to Facebook, and realistically, could be extended to email as well. This would be an interesting case to talk about on appeal, but I doubt I would ever see anything regarding this in the next six months. See MySpace 'Friend Request' Could Violate Protection Order. See also Evan Brown's write up on it and while I can't find the opinion online, the Westlaw cite is New York v. Fernino, 2008 WL 382348 (N.Y. Crim. Ct. Feb. 13, 2008).
Some of my thoughts after reading the opinion. First, the Hamlet quote is a neat introduction, but unnecessary dicta. Second, I'm leary of citing to Wikipedia in court opinions for anything because, to me, it's not quite there yet. In every case where I've needed to find something, Wikipedia may provide some general research background, but eventually I can find what I'm looking for either in another case or law review article. If it's that recent, I'm sure the attorneys will have pointed it out to me. Of course, this is a trial court and not the Court of Appeals, so take that for what it's worth. Third, the defendant is a girl who spells her "Melissa" name with only one "S." (People v. Melisa Fernino, presuming it's a pseudonym).
The impact and value of the case remains to be seen. I think it may be the first of its kind to get any sort of news, which is good for other courts confronting the issue (and, likewise, for victims to use to raise the issue before the trial court). It also could certainly provide an novel section in a MySpace and Facebook type law review article.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Myspace friend request violates protective order
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2 comments:
So a question perhaps somewhat related to this - is this a RO violation - you have a RO againt person "X", no contact (so it goes both ways). You ask your friend to find and read person X's blog and report back to you about it.. Is that "contact"?
I'm not a family law attorney and would imagine speaking to one would provide you with a more specific answer. From an academic standpoint, however, I would think the answer would be yes under agency principles, but I would say it's still a hard sell.
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