Acceptable Use Policy For The Connecticut Employment Lawyers Association Listserve

NOTICE: The Connecticut Employment Lawyers Association (“CELA”) listserve is intended for plaintiff employment lawyers only and is therefore restricted to Regular Members whose dues are current. The listserve and its content shall not be used to advance the interests of employers or in the defense of an employer.

Your use of the CELA listserve indicates your acceptance of the terms found in this Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP"). The AUP can be modified at any time by majority vote of CELA’S members, and your continued use of these services will indicate your acceptance of the modified terms.

Please remember that the open and real-time nature of the CELA listserve makes it impossible for us to vouch for the validity of all content posted. As such, we are not responsible for any messages posted or the consequences of following any advice offered within listserve posts. Even though the CELA listserve is available to members only, CELA cannot guarantee 100% privacy. Posting to the listserve should be done with this understanding. The views expressed in the posts you will find in this listserve belong solely to their respective authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of CELA. If you find any posts in the CELA listserve to be offensive or objectionable, please contact the CELA Executive Board via email.

CAUTION: If privileged information is set forth on the CELA listserve then it will likely lose its protected status and/or may be seen by third parties whom you would not want to see it. Do not use the listserve to transmit privileged or confidential information. Statements concerning sensitive topics, especially those concerning the conduct of judges and lawyers in our community, and/or the issues we and our clients confront, should be carefully thought out prior to posting.

By using these services and listserve, you agree to the following:

• You will not knowingly post any material that is false, misleading, or inaccurate.
• You will not behave in an abusive and/or hateful manner, and will not harass, threaten, insult, demean, defame or attack anyone.
• You will not post obscene or pornographic materials unless it is directly related to a pending legal matter for which such information is necessary. In the event that you are posting obscene or pornographic materials directly related to a pending legal matter for which such information is necessary, you will identify it as such in the subject matter line of the posting.
• You will not use the listserve to violate any laws or to discuss illegal activities, unless the discussion of illegal activities is directly related to a pending legal matter for which such information is necessary and your post is identified as such.
• You will not impersonate any person or entity, forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any posting, or collect or store personal data about other users.
• You will not post any copyrighted material, or link to any copyrighted material (with the exception of publicly available sites and pages that the legal owners of the copyrights have created to make that material freely available to the general public), unless that copyright is owned by you or by CELA.
• You will not use this listserve for the purposes of sharing or distributing viruses, licenses, registration information, or other information designed to do harm to or allow unlawful access to any computer hardware, software, networks, or any other systems.
• You will not post advertisements, solicitations, chain letters or pyramid schemes, all of which are inappropriate and prohibited on the listserve.
• If you wish to post a message which is off topic, you must designate it as such in the subject matter line.
• You agree that you will not post or forward to any other listserve or otherwise publish any message posted on the listserve by a CELA member without express permission from the author.
• You will, if asked to do so by the Executive Board or its designee, cease posting any content, and/or links to content, deemed offensive, objectionable, or in poor taste.

Please be advised that at all times, you remain solely responsible for anything found within your posts and agree to indemnify and hold CELA and its officers harmless from any claim or demand, including reasonable attorneys' fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of any material you post to the listserve or your violation of this Acceptable Use Policy.

The CELA listserve was created for the exchange of ideas and to raise the level of knowledge in the plaintiffs’ employment law community. While CELA understands that the opinions of reasonable people can differ and we encourage our members to offer opinions and insight, CELA listserve members must refrain from personally attacking other members.

Upon being made aware of a suspected violation of this policy, the Executive Board or its designee will review the relevant posting(s). If, in the opinion of the Executive Board, the member is found to have violated this policy, the Executive Board or its designee will advise him/her of the violation and notify the member that a future violation of the same nature may result in the member’s exclusion from the listserve.

If, after being made aware of a second suspected violation of this policy, the Executive Board finds that a member is found to have committed a second violation of the same nature within two (2) years of having been put on notice that he/she was in violation of this policy, the Executive Board or its designee will advise the member of the second violation and notify the member that he/she is being excluded from the listserve.

Upon finding that any member has violated this policy, the Executive Board will report to the membership, via a post on the listservee, (1) that a suspected violation of this policy was brought to their attention and the date of the posting(s) at issue, 2) that the posting(s) was reviewed by the Executive Board and a violation found, citing the applicable language of this policy, and 3) that the member(s) was put on notice of the violation and appropriate action taken pursuant to this policy.

Any member who has been notified that he/she is being excluded from the listserve may appeal that decision to CELA’s membership by submitting a short summary of his/her position to the Executive Board. The Executive Board will submit that appeal to CELA’s members at or before the next regularly scheduled CELA meeting. If the membership determines, by a majority of the voting members, that the Executive Board’s decision to exclude the member from the listserve should stand, then the decision will be final and the member shall be excluded from the listserve. .If, on the other hand, the membership determines by a majority of the voting members to overrule the Executive Board’s decision, the member shall not be excluded from the listserve.