Welcome to the GTLA Listserver Page!

GTLA'S LISTSERVER RULES AND REGULATION AGREEMENT

GTLA maintains, for the benefit of its members, a number of listservers dedicated to various areas of the law. These listservers are only available to members of GTLA who sign-up for that particular section. The following is a list of those listservers, with the appropriate web addresses that active sections members may visit to see an archive of discussions.

Every GTLA member is included on the General Discussion listserver after agreeing to the terms of use and approved by the Membership Committee for the list as outlined below.  To Join a Listserver discussion, simply click the name of the appropriate list. Before sending messages to any list, you must be a registered participant in that list. 

If you are interested in joining an additional section at $50 each or you are a member of any of these sections and are not on the listserver please contact GTLA at 404-522-8487 ext. 2500 or email Development Director Sheila Thomsen at sthomsen@gtla.org.  

General Discussion Listserver - included at no additional charge with GTLA Membership
To Send Message: gtlamembersdiscuss@lists.trialsmith.com

Family Law Section Listserver
To Send Message: gtlafamilylaw@lists.trialsmith.com

Paralegal Section Listserver
To Send Message: gtlaparalegal@lists.trialsmith.com

Professional Liability Section Listserver
To Send Message: gtlaliability@lists.trialsmith.com

Social Security Section Listserver
To Send Message: gtlasocsecurity@lists.trialsmith.com

Trucking Section Listserver
To Send Message: gtlatrucking@lists.trialsmith.com

Women's Caucus Listserver
To Send Message: gtlawomen@lists.trialsmith.com

Workers Compensation Section Listserver
To Send Message: gtlawccl@lists.trialsmith.com

RULES, REGULATIONS, AND AGREEMENT FOR THE GTLA LISTSERVER

The following rules shall be followed by all GTLA Members who participate in GTLA’s Listserver. Members who fail to adhere to these Rules will be subject to appropriate discipline as discussed in paragraph 14 below.  

PURPOSE OF THE LISTSERVER:

The GTLA Listserver was created to facilitate communication among Members and to assist Members in the practice of law by sharing valuable information including recent developments in the law, new defense strategies, jury verdicts, possible referrals, and law office management. It is a professional listserver, as opposed to a personal, recreational, or social means of communicating with others. As a general rule, any message containing litigation-related information that is likely to be of interest to other Members is appropriate. If you are unsure about the permissibility of a message please contact the Listserver Committee via Development Director Sheila Thomsen at sthomsen@gtla.org.

PROHIBITED MESSAGES:

1.    Political Messages: Members are prohibited from posting messages endorsing or advocating any political candidate or position. This is of particular concern during election season and the legislative session. GTLA is a non-partisan organization, and its lobbying efforts depend on support from both sides of the aisle.  Therefore it is absolutely imperative that the Listserver is not used to support or to denigrate any particular position or candidate. GTLA will occasionally inform Members via the Listserver of political candidates' positions related only to support of the Civil Justice System.    

a.             Political Event Announcements:  Listserver posts by members that merely inform membership of upcoming political events are permitted only if they do not contain any commentary whatsoever regarding why members should or should not support any particular candidate, position, or political party.  Announcements and/or invitations that contain commentary on the virtues or vices of any candidate, position, or political party are strictly prohibited.  Should you have any concerns about whether your post complies with this rule, please send the proposed post to the Listserver Committee at listproblemsgtla@gmail.com.  Further, only one announcement and one final reminder per event are permitted.               

2.    Personal Messages: Members are prohibited from posting personal message that are more appropriate for individual communications between individual Members. Messages such as "thank you" or "congratulations" should not be sent to the entire listserver.

         Before replying to an email, consider whether the response contains information that the entire Listserver would like to know, or is the response directed more appropriately to the recipient. The default response should not be “Reply to All.” If someone responds to your inquiry with useful information, there is nothing wrong with expressing gratitude to them, but it needs to be done privately. Similarly, when someone reports a jury verdict or settlement there is nothing wrong with congratulating them, but this also needs to be done privately. A post reporting a jury verdict gets, on average, 25 congratulatory responses which have absolutely no value to the other 1,500 Members. In fact, taking the time to send a private congratulatory email or thank-you will carry more meaning than a rote response. Further, to the extent a Member unintentionally replies to the entire Listserver with a personal response, do not compound the mistake by sending a second email apologizing for the error.

a.            At times, an "off-topic" message can be helpful, such as an offer to sell extra tickets to a football or baseball game. Within reason, these messages will be allowed. However, do not respond to the entire Listserver that you want the tickets that only a single Member has. Please use common sense, if the Listserver begins to look like eBay, we will have to prohibit this also.

b.            Personal debates between two Members is prohibited. Discussion of a new or murky legal issue is encouraged, but all too often such discussion turns into a personal debate between two individuals that is of no interest to the other 2,000+ Members. Please be aware of the circumstances of your discussion. If a discussion has devolved into just you and one other person, it is time to get off the Listserver and exchange private emails. If you are unable to recognize when you have crossed that line, the Listserver Committee will remind you, and if it becomes a recurring problem, sanctions will be imposed.     

c.             Do not respond to requests for documents, such as copies of motions or briefs, with "me too" or “please post to the list." All Members are encouraged to post any helpful documents on the Listserver and on GTLA's document bank. It should be understood that the preferred course of action is for each of us to post requested documents to the entire Listserver for the benefit of all of Members. There are, on average, fifteen requests for documents a week which lead to 20-30 “me too” responses. In order to cut down on these superfluous and unnecessary messages, we will presume that everyone who is willing to do so will post to the list. To the extent that no response is posted to on the Listserver, the appropriate action is to contact the original poster privately asking for a copy of whatever they received.

3.    Messages containing racist, sexist and derogatory content. Members are strictly prohibited from posting any message containing comments that are racist, sexist or derogatory in any manner.

4.    Check the GTLA archives before asking for information. The GTLA Listserver archives contain all prior listserver posts. Many of the commonly used defense experts and almost every mediator has been the subject of at least one past listserver inquiry. All too often, a Member asks about Mediator Joe Smith and then three or four weeks later, a different Member asks about the same mediator. Also, when looking for depositions and prior reports of an expert, you may find messages in the archives indicating a Member has already accumulated all the depositions for an expert and so a private email to that attorney may lead to a quicker and more thorough response than a post on the Listserver. 

5.    Duplicative or cumulative responses. Unless you have new or additional information, do not simply repeat what others have already said. Some amount of consensus is helpful, but someone asks about Mediator Jane Smith and five Members have responded that she is great, there is nothing to be gained by adding a sixth response saying “ditto” or “I agree.”  Likewise, if someone asks what the appellate standard of review is for a discovery motion and five Members have responded “abuse of discretion,” there is nothing of value by sending a similar response. Of course, nothing prevents you from sending a private reply and saying whatever you want, but we need to limit the unnecessary traffic on the Listserver.

6.    “Flaming” and ad hominem attacks. Personal attacks are strictly prohibited. Flaming is defined as hostile and insulting interaction between Members, and it is frequently the result of the discussion of polarizing issues such as politics, religion, and philosophy, although sometimes it can be provoked by seemingly trivial differences. Flaming is not a constructive use of the Listserver, and Members should never attack individuals on the Listserver. Valid concerns may be voiced when the purpose is to initiate a conversation or engage in a reasoned, professional debate. Often there are at two sides (at least) to every issue. Members should be respectful of others who have a different point of view and if common ground cannot be found, at least agree to disagree respectfully. Remember to be cognizant of Rule 2(a) that prohibits personal debates between two individual Members. When a discussion gets to that point, it should be continued privately and not on the Listserver.

7.     Marketing. The Listserver can be a valuable marketing tool, but it is not the forum to post personal videos, advertisements, etc., to regale others with war stories, or to toot one’s own horn. The best way to market yourself on the Listserver is to provide articulate, insightful comments, and not to tell everyone how great you are.

8.    Messages promoting non-GTLA program. Generally, messages which promote other, non-GTLA programs or CLE’s are prohibited. However, if you have an event that you feel warrants being posted on the Listserver, please forward any requests of this nature to the Listserver Committee at listproblemsgtla@gmail.com for approval.

a.         Do not post advertisements, solicitations, promotions or announcements of goods or services for commercial purposes, except for the purpose of sharing information with Members about third party services that are likely to be of interest to such Members, e.g. office management software.  In the event you do have a financial interest in the service, you must disclose it.  If you are unsure, please forward the information to the Listserver Committee for their prior approval.

b.        Do not post advertisements, solicitations, promotions or announcements of charitable fundraising events that are not officially sponsored by GTLA or the Civil Justice PAC.

9.     Do not post messages which are threatening, abusive, harassing or defamatory, libelous, pornographic, obscene, invasive of another’s privacy, otherwise tortious or unlawful, hateful or ethically objectionable.

10.   Do not post material that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment, or which negatively affects other users’ ability to upload, download, communicate in real time, or utilize features as they have been designed to function.

11.   Do not post material that violates copyright, license, right of privacy, right of publicity, trademark, privilege, right of confidentiality, fiduciary obligation, trade secret, employment obligation, agreement or other restriction of use.

12.   Do not post content that constitutes, encourages or provides instructions in committing a criminal offense, violation of another’s rights, conduct that is likely to give rise to liability or violation of Court Rules or Rules of Professional Conduct, or violation of these Listserver regulations.

13.   Do not post briefs, declarations, depositions or expert testimony subject to outstanding confidentiality agreements or orders, unless in compliance therewith. You must delete material that reveals client confidences, secrets, trade secrets or privileged information, unless the client consents to posting or revelation of the information.   

14.   DISCIPLINE.  These rules will be enforced by the Listserver Committee. The Listserver Committee has full authority from the Executive Committee to enforce these rules and to apply sanctions as it deems appropriate in its discretion. Discipline will generally range from private reprimands, typically for minor infractions, to public reprimands for repeat offenders, to temporary or permanent suspension from the Listserver, depending on the number and severity of violations.

OTHER ISSUES:

Please remember to routinely and frequently Virus-Scan your system, especially when receiving or downloading files from other systems to prevent the spread of viruses.

When going away for over a week please consider changing yourself to vacation mode. If you need assistance, please send a notice to sthomsen@gtla.org noting the vacation dates you will be out of the office. This will avoid your mailbox filling up while you are away.

Certify Email Address:

Having trouble receiving Listserver emails? It could be due to your email address not yet being certified. If that's the case, there is one last step to completing your Membership that takes less than 5 minutes:

1.)    Go to www.GTLA.org
2.)   Navigate tabs to Listserver Settings (Members->Listserver->Manage List Settings)
3.)   Login to the website (Website will prompt you)
4.)   Login completion will load List Settings Page with [Settings] tab page visible-Click the remaining tab on the right titled [Email Certify]
5.)   The email address you receive Listserver messages to/designated you would like associated with your account will be listed below the heading “Certified Addresses”. If it is not, please type correct email address into the top empty field listed below the heading “Certify Additional Addresses”.
6.)   Follow the on-screen instructions/prompts as it guides you through the last steps of certifying your email address.

**Please note: There can only be one certified email address per membership.

Still having issues? Please email Development Director Sheila Thomsen at sthomsen@gtla.org.