Program Details
2026-11-12 12:00:00
Over 1,000+ webinars
Course Overview
2026-11-12 12:00:00
2h CLE Credits
Intermediate
2
12:00 pm - 2:10 pm ESTThree recent cases highlight the challenges and importance of social media discovery: Authors Guild v. OpenAI Inc. (S.D.N.Y. 2024), Snap v. Superior Court (Cal. App. 2024), and In re: OpenAI, Inc. Copyright Infringement Litigation (S.D.N.Y. 2025). These cases address a company’s ability to challenge requests for employee social media messages based on state social media privacy statutes like California Labor Code §980, the applicability of the Stored Communications Act to subpoenas of social media companies, and the duties of counsel in surveying or interviewing custodians and conducting reviews of employee social media.
Social media content is an ever-increasing subject of discovery in all kinds of civil disputes. Most commonly, plaintiffs in employment discrimination or personal injury suits seeking damages for emotional injury or loss of enjoyment of life face demands for social media content that may contradict those allegations of injury. But recent cases highlight the strong role that social media discovery plays in any case where employees or other “custodians” have used such a platform or messaging application to communicate about relevant issues.
This CLE will offer an update on case law construing the rules governing discovery of social media content. It will give concrete advice for both seeking and objecting to such requests. It will address the context of employer production of employee social media posts and messages. And it will address statutes, such as the SCA, that may limit discovery of such data from the social media platforms themselves. Attorneys will also get a refresher on general procedures for preservation, review, production, and authentication of electronically stored information (ESI). This includes proportionality under Rule 26 and spoliation under Rule 37, as well as privacy and ethical concerns.
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Allyson Haynes StuartAllyson Haynes Stuart is an expert on privacy and e-discovery who has served as a Special Master and as an expert on e-discovery issues in state and federal courts, and who has practiced as a privacy and e-discovery professional with Crystal & Giannoni-Crystal, LLC since 2015, where she is Of Counsel. A Professor of Law at Charleston School of Law since 2004, she teaches E-Discovery, Information Privacy Law, Internet Law, Civil Procedure, Evidence, and Contracts. Her article Finding Privacy in a Sea of Social Media and Other E-Discovery appeared in the Northwestern Journal of Technology & Intellectual Property, and her most recent, The Privacy Paradox in Discovery, appears in the Summer 2024 Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law.
Allyson Haynes Stuart is an expert on privacy and e-discovery who has served as a Special Master and as an expert on e-discovery issues in state and federal courts, and who has practiced as a privacy and e-discovery professional with Crystal & Giannoni-Crystal, LLC since 2015, where she is Of Counsel. A Professor of Law at Charleston School of Law since 2004, she teaches E-Discovery, Information Privacy Law, Internet Law, Civil Procedure, Evidence, and Contracts. Her article Finding Privacy in a Sea of Social Media and Other E-Discovery appeared in the Northwestern Journal of Technology & Intellectual Property, and her most recent, The Privacy Paradox in Discovery, appears in the Summer 2024 Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law.
Requirements
The Alabama State Bar MCLE Commission requires attorneys to complete 12 credits, including 1 ethics, by December 31 of each year. All credits must be reported by February 15 of the following year. A maximum of 12 credits, including 1 ethics credit, may be carried over for 1 year only.
Formats
