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FindLaw Polls Show What Lawyers Think of Guns, Punk, and More

By Casey C. Sullivan, Esq. on November 09, 2015 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

Here at FindLaw, we're big proponents of lawyers taking advantage of social media. Since we like to practice what we preach, you can find us on just about every social media platform from Pinterest to Google+ (remember that?).

So when Twitter announced its new polling feature a few weeks ago, we were ready to take the pulse of the legal community on today's most important issues. And the results of our FindLaw #TwitterPolls are in.

The Professionals Weigh In

1. Caselaw v. Case Law: FindLaw readers must not be fans of the Solicitor General. When the SG's new style guide came out recently, it took a strong stand against the phrase "caselaw," calling it a "barbarism" that should face "total extirpation," leading to some prolific feuding on Twitter. But it looks like we're the barbarians at the SG's gate. Caselaw was the preferred phrase by two-to-one in FindLaw's poll.

2. Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Lawyer Advertising: When a Gainseville, Florida, attorney plastered an annual punk festival with flyers for his services, we asked our readers: genius marketing or ambulance chasing? And our readers were split. A slight majority, 54 percent of you, were on board with the ads. Another 46 percent said no way.

3. Johnny, Esq., Got His #Gun? FindLaw readers were also split over whether lawyers should own guns. Sixty percent thought a Glock went fine alongside a J.D., while the remaining 40 percent were opposed. Our scientists are currently working on cross referencing these results with other polls, to see if punk attorney advertisers are more or less likely to own arms. (We kid. Votes are anonymous.)

4. No Need to Stress Failing the Bar: There's been a lot of talk about this year's terrible bar passage rates. July, 2015, test takers have some of the lowest pass rates in recent decades. But, according to Harvard Law prof. Noah Feldman, that's not a bad thing. High failure rates indicate that law schools are willing to take risks on students who would otherwise be excluded from the legal industry, he argues. And FindLaw readers agree! Seventy-one percent of respondents thought that low bar passage rates could be a good thing.

What Do Consumers Think?

1. Could You Speak Into the Mic? Of course, we'd be remiss to ignore the views of our large consumer audience. So, after an Illinois man was ordered to remove a Facebook post calling on people to record court proceedings, we gave our legal consumers a little test: was it illegal to record any court proceedings? Most passed, with 86 percent correctly picking "it depends."

2. Copy and Paste: But, when it came to plagiarism, consumer-side readers were a bit off. One hundred percent of respondents thought that plagiarism was a crime. As attorneys know, while plagiarism is despicable, it's rarely a criminal act.

If you want to throw your two bits in, you're unfortunately a bit late. All our polls have closed for now, but you can stay up to date on the latest FindLaw polling by following us on Twitter (@FindLawLP) and Facebook (FindLaw for Legal Professionals).

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