As a result of the explosion in popularity of social networking Web sites such as Facebook and MySpace, where members “post” and share information about themselves as never before, attorneys, and particularly litigators, have begun to take note of the potential utility of this new medium.

Indeed, as explained below, some recent court proceedings demonstrate that an adversary’s MySpace or Facebook page may sometimes contain the all-important smoking gun, and such sites can potentially be used to serve legal process on an adversary. At a minimum, understanding the potential uses of social networking sites should be considered when preparing for litigation.

However, the ability to use information discovered from a social networking Web site as evidence has not yet been fully tested in courtrooms, and attorneys must understand the evidentiary and ethical implications of seeking and discovering such evidence. In fact, at least one ethics opinion has already addressed issues arising from counsel’s potentially unethical use of such a site to discover evidence.

One thing is clear: Attorneys and their clients must become acquainted with the potential usefulness of social networking sites, as well as the potential hazards and limitations.