The Most Awkward Aspect of Blogging

I'm curious to hear from other bloggers what you find most awkward about blogging.  I'm not usually afraid of incorrectly stating the law; on the rare occasions I'm wrong, I note a correction.  Everyone has made a mistake about the law.  It happens.  No, for me the most awkward thing about blogging is this: When I blog about particular people and those people then read our blog.

E.g., my stat counter indicates that people referenced in the post below are now - or just were - reading the post about them.  It always makes me feel sort of weird -- it makes me feel like I'm talking behind someone's back. 

Of course, everything I write stays on the page, comments are open, and it's easy to find my e-mail address.  So no one is denied the opportunity to heard.  But it still feels weird to me, even after 2 years of blogging.

Comments

[Scott]

Not being a lawyer, I don't mind being "wrong" about the law on occasion, because that usually just means I disagree with it, or the court's interpretation, and I don't hold out my blogging as having any basis in stare decisis. When I'm corrected on legal interpretation or even factual errors I truly welcome it because often I'm blogging on stuff I'm trying to work through myself, not things I know everything about. To me that's one of the coolest parts of blogging: It lets me work through issues in an informal space before taking them into the political arena.

My most awkward blogging moments involved blogging about the state legislative process, then testifying before the TX House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee and having the committee chairman (who will soon be a justice on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals after November) pull up my blog from the dais and begin reading what I'd written about the various committee members. None of it was too harsh, some of it even complimentary, and I stood by it all - actually, the committee later even voted for my bill - but it was a tense, surreal experience nonetheless.

[William J. Ward, Esq.]

The most awkward thing about blogging is making critical comments about other attorneys, particularly in writing about conflicts of interest. The concern is that you could become a pariah to some lawyers and judges, similar to those lawyers who accept plaintiff's legal malpractice claims. Prominent members of the bar do not like to be criticized. However, since the Kelo decision, we see the conflicts issue taking center stage, especially in redevelopment projects in New Jersey, where there are conflicting relationships among politicians, developers, and lawyers and "pay to play" is operative on all levels. Since Justice Kennedy wrote about the impermissible favoritism issue in his concurring decision in Kelo, I feel strongly that this issue should be brought before the courts and the public.

[Ivan]

What feels most awkward to me is the idea that potential employers may read my blog and make decisions based on that. I blog under my real name and my Blogger profile is the top Google result for my name, so there's no getting around it. I tell myself that I probably would not want to work for any employer who would not hire me because of the commentary in my blog, but if I have trouble finding work this summer or next summer or after law school, I'd have to wonder if the blog had something to do with that and if it was worth it.