"To Google or not to Google? That is the question"

Nexsen Pruet Employment and Labor Law attorney Grainger Pierce spoke to the Triad Business Journal about the dangers of doing on-line searches to learn about job candidates.

Michelle Cater Rash's May 14th article is entitled "To Google or not to Google?  That is the question."

Peirce told Rash, “The knowledge is out there, and it’s easy to access.... The danger with this is the very thing that you seek by looking on the page in the first place, the knowledge. Knowledge can open the door to liability.”

Pierce elaborated on why using on-line searches and social networking sites can be dangerous.  “The best defense to a discrimination claim is that you had no awareness of the issue that gave rise to it.  But if the information enters your head, the defense shifts to ‘I knew, but I didn’t rely on it.’ You can see how much weaker your position becomes.”

C. Grainger Pierce, Jr. practices in the firm’s Employment and Labor Law group. His experience includes employment litigation, employment policy and compliance assessment, ERISA litigation, insurance coverage litigation, commercial litigation, and construction litigation.