Technology, Ethics and Your Practice | October 2014

n the course of using technology to support your legal practice, you may already have bumped up against ethical questions like:

• When should I use encryption?
• If I use cloud storage for client files, am I sufficiently protecting client confidentiality?
• How do I best safeguard any client data in my mobile device?
  

These issues (and many more) are addressed in the August 2014 paper from the Canadian Bar Association’s Ethics and Professional Responsibility Committee. The paper is intended to:

…help you spot potential ethical issues related to the use of technology and to direct you to resources to determine best practices and solutions that are appropriate for your situation. The five areas covered – confidentiality, security, marketing, providing services electronically, and accessibility – were identified as areas where lawyers most often face ethical risks in using technology. There are other areas of concern and new issues will emerge as both the law practice environment and available technologies evolve. Learning how to practice ethically with technology should be approached as an ongoing and dynamic task.

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