One common practice amongst attorneys is to outsource blogging and social media management to web consultants. This is not surprising given the seemingly endless demands of an online presence in today’s competitive legal markets. Most attorneys do not have time to regularly be monitoring and posting to a myriad of social media websites let alone keep up with weekly blog posts. However, Rule 8.4 seemingly prohibits this increasingly popular practice in the legal community, in particular, solo practitioners. Attorneys should consider using services like Buffer to manage their own social media accounts, and find time to set aside to contribute their own authentic blog posts, as opposed to outsourcing it to outside agencies.

I was honored to speak on September 10, 2015, at the ICJE on the impact of the Georgia Supreme Court decision Williams v. State, 296 Ga. 817, 771 S.E.2d 
373 (2015). The Williams decision has a far reaching impact on the admissibility of blood, breath and urine tests in Georgia DUI cases. The following is an excerpt of my presentation that addressed why this analysis is important and how to apply it to DUI investigations.

The Williams decision held that the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion in Missouri v. McNeely, 133 S. Ct. 1552 (2013) applies to Georgia DUI investigations when it stated that “or the first time in Georgia, the trial court now must determine ‘the voluntariness of the consent’ at a suppression hearing challenging the chemical test.”

The old, arguably clear-cut statutory rules of implied consent, were primarily focused on whether: (1) the warning was read immediately after arrest; (2) the proper section was read (over-21, under-21 or CDL); and (3) all reasonable independent test requests were honored. After McNeely and Williams, the trial court must now engage in a more complex and careful analysis of whether the driver’s consent was truly free and voluntary as opposed to merely an acquiescence to the authority asserted by a police officer.