Social Media Policy

Guidelines and Procedures

The award is presented to an attorney who is a well-respected member of the legal community and exhibits integrity, competence, high ethical standards, career achievement and service to the bar and/or community. The individual must be licensed to practice law in the state of New Jersey, and have demonstrated outstanding character and continually displayed a firm commitment to the ideals of professionalism as epitomized in the NJ Commission on Professionalism in the Law’s Principles of Professionalism.

Guidelines For Social Media Platforms

A. All official HCBA content posted on its social media platforms should be approved by the HCBA Public Relations and Social Media Chair(s), with the Chair(s) and the HCBA Executive Director (the “Administrators”) serving as the administrator(s) of these platforms. The Administrator(s) should strive to ensure that HCBA social media platforms are active through regular posts.

B. HCBA’s committees and subcommittees shall not create new Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts, but instead, may submit content to the HCBA Public Relations and Social Media Chair(s) which they desire to be posted on HCBA social media platforms.

C. The HCBA will do its best to make sure that the posts and comments on its social media platforms are consistent with its mission, are accurate and professional, and free from profanity or obscenity.

D. The HCBA will not tolerate comments posted on its social media platforms which falls into the following categories, and will remove comments/posts that are:

1. Abusive, defamatory, or obscene;
2. Fraudulent, deceptive, or misleading;
3. In violation of another’s intellectual property right;
4. In violation of any law or regulation;
5. Otherwise offensive

E. The views, opinions, and experiences expressed in user-submitted comments are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the HCBA. User comments are not edited for accuracy; however, to ensure a continually positive experience for our members and the public, we may report or remove content or commentary containing spam, profanity, or that is otherwise objectionable or prohibited material.

F. HCBA’s posts should not contain:

1. marketing of non-HCBA approved goods, services, vendors, or sponsors, legal or otherwise;
2. suggestions of the appearance of HCBA endorsement of non-HCBA products, policies, vendors or sponsors;
3. any statements or public positions in conflict with those of the HCBA;
4. any statements not approved by the Administrator(s);
5. To the extent that user-submitted comments fall into any of the above categories, the HCBA reserves the rights to remove such material.

G. The HCBA encourages committee and member participation on the HCBA’s social media platforms as follows:

1. Commenting on, sharing, or re-posting HCBA posts;
2. Submitting proposed posts to the Administrators; and
3. Tagging HCBA pages in relevant posts on their personal accounts.

H. Non-HCBA members can subscribe, follow and/or engage with HCBA’s social media platforms.

I. Any members of the HCBA Board posting on behalf of the HCBA on HCBA’s social media platforms, shall ensure that their posts fairly state HCBA policy or views, or shall otherwise clearly identify that their view is at variance with those of the HCBA and shall clearly identify same as the member’s personal view.

J. An alias email address must be created and provided for the site (that is consistent across all of HCBA’s social media platforms) and connected to at least one Administrator’s email address.

K. All HCBA social media platforms must contain a disclaimer for any views expressed.