The Victorian Legal Services Board + Commissioner monitor a range of social media platforms for content of relevance or interest to our operations and statutory functions.

We also use selected social media platforms to communicate with the legal profession and consumers of legal services across Victoria. Our preferred social media platforms are Twitter, YouTube and our own websitebased blog.

Twitter

The Board and Commissioner maintain separate Twitter accounts, but often post the same content. The Board’s Twitter handle is @LSB_Victoria, while the Commissioner’s Twitter handle is @LSC_Victoria.

YouTube

Our YouTube account is called ‘LSC Victoria’ and is used to share public presentations given by staff, as well as video content produced by recipients of the Board’s Grants Program funding.

Blog

Our website hosts a blog called ‘RPA News’, which is used to publish a range of content. RPA News is published specifically by the Commissioner, however Board content may also be posted.

We use social media to assist us in disseminating information about legal profession regulation in Victoria, and to promote the rights and responsibilities consumers have when dealing with lawyers.

Specifically, we publish the following types of content:

• changes to the regulatory regime for lawyers;
• new resources available to lawyers or consumers;
• disciplinary action taken by the Board or Commissioner against a lawyer in a court or at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT);
• events which we may be involved in;
• funding opportunities from the Board’s Grants Program;
• the outcomes of programs funded by the Board;
• tips and advice for lawyers and/or consumers of legal services within Victoria
•  practising certificate renewals for lawyers; and
• other information we believe is of interest to people who follow our social media accounts.

Content will not necessarily be added on a regular basis but when available and deemed appropriate. Our Twitter feed is checked on a daily basis, but not continually throughout the day.

Our social media platforms are not intended to be used as a discussion forum. We do not actively seek responses or comments to our posts on any of our channels. Replies or comments which are received will not necessarily be acknowledged or responded to.

Trolling or spamming of our accounts by others (for example, sending abusive messages, unsubstantiated allegations or hearsay) will not be responded to, and the offending accounts may be blocked at our discretion.

Comments and feedback can be sent to us via the contact details on the Contact Us page of our website.

We maintain a record of all tweets, videos and blog posts we publish in line with Victorian government record management requirements.

We will also record details of any replies or direct messages received through our social media channels. Limited metadata will be kept on file, specifically the name of the sending account, the message content, and the date and time the message was received. No other personal information will be collected or stored from any of our channels.

Our Privacy Policy can be accessed via our website.

Our YouTube account is not capable of tracking individual viewers, only the numbers of times each video has been viewed. Lawyers who are using our video posts for continuing professional development purposes must maintain their own records, including the date(s) and title(s) of any video watched in order to account for your CPD points.

We may follow other Twitter accounts or subscribe to other YouTube channels that we consider relevant or of interest. Our following of a third party Twitter account or subscribing to a YouTube channel does not in any way imply we endorse the views of, or statements published by, the account holder or manager.

While due care will be taken in assessing accounts to be followed, we will not necessarily review each and every post shared by accounts that we follow or subscribe to. We therefore cannot be responsible if a post from an account we follow or subscribe to is deemed inappropriate to others. If we become aware of inappropriate content being shared from an account we follow or subscribe to, we may review and cease following or subscribing to that account at our discretion.

We understand that other social media users may choose to follow our accounts and/or share our posts with their followers or subscribers at any time. Accounts that follow or subscribe to the Board and/or Commissioner accounts will not automatically be reciprocally followed.

We may choose to re-tweet or share posts from other social media accounts which we consider are relevant or of interest to our followers or subscribers. Re-tweeting or sharing does not in any way imply endorsement of any statements in that post, nor the views of the original authors of the post. If we modify a re-tweet from another account, we will identify that tweet with the prefix ‘MT’. We will not necessarily seek prior approval or permission from an author before sharing a post from another account.

Due care will also be taken to ensure that the content of links in messages which we share are appropriate before sharing the link. We will not be responsible if the owner of the site we link to changes the content of the link.

The Commissioner publishes the results of prosecutions of lawyers in court or at VCAT to educate the legal profession about the mistakes made by other lawyers. It is intended that this will allow all lawyers to examine and adjust their own practises, if necessary, to ensure they are complying with legislation, legal profession regulations, legal profession rules and meeting the expectations of the legal profession and consumers of legal services.

We will not necessarily publish all prosecutions undertaken by the Board or the Commissioner on RPA News. In certain circumstances, such as where we believe no further public good is served by publicising certain information, we may opt to omit the name of the prosecuted person(s) or may choose to not publicise the matter at all.

On occasion the Board or Commissioner may contribute comments on articles published on various websites. These comments will be provided using the blog or discussion board feature provided on those websites. Responses to our comments will not necessarily be replied to in turn.

The Board and Commissioner occasionally need to communicate important information directly to the Victorian legal profession. The most efficient way to provide this information in a timely manner is via email.

Our mass-email communications cover various topics including changes to the regulatory regime, reminders for renewing practising certificates and alerts to issues affecting lawyers and consumers.

We use MailChimp, an email marketing service, to distribute our messages to lawyers and other individuals (as appropriate) who have requested to receive such information. Recipients of these emails may unsubscribe from our mailing lists at any time.

MailChimp is a Victorian Government approved supplier of email marketing services. Our MailChimp databases, while stored outside of Australia, are maintained securely by the service provider and are managed subject to Australian privacy legislation requirements.