The Conflict Between Social Media Discovery and User Privacy

In Forman v. Henkin, the First Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York clarified New York’s rules for social media discovery. The court held that if a party seeks to gain access to a private social media account as part of the discovery process, that party must first make a threshold showing of “relevance” prior to being granted access to the account. To make such a showing, the party requesting discovery must find publicly available social media posts from the opposing party that are somehow relevant to the opposing party’s claim or defense. Following a discussion of the court’s holding, this Comment discusses the implications of the court’s decision on the broader discovery process and calls for a reconsideration of the rules for social media discovery.