Judge's Facebook Friendship With Attorney Doesn't Require Recusal, Court Rules
Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Beatrice Butchko is not disqualified from a case just because she's Facebook "friends" with an attorney in the matter, an appellate court ruled.
August 23, 2017 at 02:00 PM
6 minute read
The original version of this story was published on Daily Business Review
A Facebook friendship just doesn't mean what it used to, an appellate court ruled Wednesday in a dispute over a Miami judge's social media connection with a lawyer.
Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Beatrice Butchko won't have to recuse herself from a case in which her former bench colleague and Facebook friend Israel Reyes appeared before her as an attorney, the Third District Court of Appeal ruled.
The decision differs from opinions issued by another Florida appellate court and a judicial ethics advisory committee. But that's because times have changed, the judges wrote. In 2017, a Facebook friend probably isn't really a friend.
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