The New York State Bar Association , Committee on Professional Ethics in Opinion 843 ruled that an “attorney may ethically view and access the Facebook and MySpace profiles of a party other than the lawyer’s client in litigation as long as the party’s profile is available to all members in the network.” On the other hand, the Committee ruled that a lawyer is prohibited by the Professional Rules of Conduct from requesting the adverse party to be its “friend” or directing an unrelated third-party to do so on its behalf (this would violate Rule 8.4 which prohibits deceptive or misleading conduct). The Committee reasoned that an attorney which “friends” a represented party in a pending litigation runs afoul of Rule 4.2 (the “no-contact rule”) which strictly prohibits attorneys from communicating with a represented party, unless the lawyer has the consent of the other lawyer or is authorized by law to do so. A lawyer that attempts to “friend” an unrepresented party is in violation of Rule 4.3, which prohibits an attorney from giving legal advice to a pro-se litigant (an unrepresented party) for purposes other than advice that it secure legal counsel. Therefore, if you are in a pending litigation and your Facebook or MySpace page is public, an opposing attorney can access your social networking page to obtain information to be used against you in a pending lawsuit. If you are being sued or believe that you may have a viable legal claim against another, please call Erik M. Bashian , an experienced New York trial attorney to discuss.