Lawyers dread the Christmas party for many reasons: being cornered by the office bore/letch, getting so drunk you might tell the senior partner what you really think, or just the thought of hitting tomorrow’s billing target with a thumping headache.

But, it turns out, there is another reason to be wary of yuletide shindigs – those evil camera phones. Obiter has just received an impressively alarming press release from Cheshire firm SAS Daniels, warning that there should be a ban on these dangerous devices at any Christmas party, unless you want to be ‘both sacked and sued for the sake of a few drunken prods of a mobile phone keypad’.

Employment lawyer Jonathan Whittaker warns: ‘The speed with which an embarrassing or even unlawful photo can make it from phone to internet is breathtaking. Digital-savvy types [that is, one of the nerds from IT] can take a photo and post it on a blog, website or social networking site for the world to see within seconds. The problem is that unless the subject or subjects of the photo give their permission, then it could be a sackable and sueable act.’

He adds: ‘Now, we’ve all been there – or nearby. Christmas parties are full of silly, stupid or sometimes downright offensive little acts carried out by people whose judgement is severely impaired by the effects of 10 pints of lager or a litre of Lambrusco.

‘Sticking a mobile phone camera lens under a toilet door, up a skirt, into the face of somebody caught snogging or engaging in any one of a million other revelrous (sic) acts [Obiter would love to come to the SAS Daniels Christmas bash] and then sharing the picture with anybody, by any means, is actionable on the grounds of anything from breach of European privacy laws, through to transmission of pornographic material, or even defamation.’

Obiter would never seek to encourage irresponsible or illegal behaviour, and so would never advise any reader to take amusingly incriminating high-resolution Christmas party pictures of colleagues and then email to them to obiter@lawsociety.co.uk.