Today’s headlines are no longer tomorrow’s chip wrappers!

And not just because we don’t wrap fish and chips in old newspapers – although I’m not sure whether that’s a health and safety thing, or just because there just aren’t that many newspapers printed pro rata to the amount of fish and chips we eat! 

But for those of you who remember eating fish and chips out of the newspaper sitting outside the chip shop, you’ll also no doubt remember that stories used to die quicker than your chips went cold.  

We all know that that is no longer the case, and it’s not just celebrities and politicians who are constantly reminded of the mistakes they made in the past. 

Even we lesser mortals can find that things we did and said months or even years ago can come back to bite us. 

In a recent Tribunal hearing, one member of a three-panel bench had to be removed from the case due to comments he had made on social media years earlier, which showed that he was clearly biased against people who were religious. The case in question, related to whether someone’s religious views against same-sex marriages justified them being dismissed, so religion was clearly a key issue. The tribunal member tried to pass his earlier comments off, saying it was just light-hearted banter, but it was eventually found that it would not be possible to have a fair trial, and the whole process had to be abandoned. A new trial had to be listed, at a cost to the parties and the taxpayer of thousands of pounds. 

I’ve also seen examples of people not getting jobs or faring badly in criminal proceedings due to things they have said and done in the past in what they might have thought were their private lives, but if you post something on social media, is it ever really private any more? 

That doesn’t mean that I think you should stop posting on social media, but it does mean that before you post, it might be worth considering what the long-term implications might be. Is it “publish and be damned” or should it be “stop the presses!”. 

Kleyman & Co Solicitors. The full-service law firm. Holding the front page for you!