As a leading Atlanta criminal defense lawyer, W. Scott Smith, the Peachstate Lawyer, knows that successfully defending a client’s rights is a multifaceted process. Of course, the focus is always on defending that client in court, if necessary, against the criminal charges they may be facing. However, even with a positive outcome at trial or via settlement, our work isn’t always done.

One aspect of this is the damage to a person’s reputation, and their standing within the community. A person’s reputation can often be irreparably tarnished even when they are found not guilty, and are not convicted of any charge.

There’s the stigma of the arrest and the trial, and a tendency for people to not quickly change their mind once it has been made. Making matters worse is when police mugshots are posted online, and are prominently and permanently displayed across a variety of blogs, websites and online networks.

Right now in Florida, Rep. Carl Zimmermann of Palm Harbor has introduced legislation to the state which would force websites to delete arrest photos if the person in question is later found not guilty, or if the charges are dropped. While these websites have the right to share or publish information, they also should have a legal responsibility to remove, amend or update that information based on what happens down the line.

It’s also a unique circumstance for websites, versus traditional newspapers. If a newspaper has a story with a mugshot included within it, that story is only in circulation for that day. It will not be readily found by other people over a period of weeks, months or years. Further, if a newspaper publishes incorrect information, they issue corrections or retractions

Websites, though, can continue showing an old arrest photo technically as long as they wanted, without any consequences. Imagine if somebody was searching for you online and found a picture of your mugshot on the first page of Google, for some kind of erroneous charge which was dropped. That’s the kind of thing which needs to be prevented, and the legislation introduced in Florida would certainly be beneficial in regards to that.

It’s also important to note that this is a proposed piece of legislation within the state of Florida alone. There have been related issues in other states, from a sheriff in Utah stopping mugshots being posted on websites by stopping releasing them, to a class-action lawsuit filed in Ohio against some websites which had posted mugshots.

Defending the rights of our clients is something we take seriously at W. Scott Smith, and that’s why this news was something of interest which we knew would also be of value to our clients.