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Like anything else, I think the rule is 'write what you know'. Don't try and write characters that speak in particular dialects or come from a particular place unless you're willing to do your research. Even the professionals make this mistake, for example:
I'm British and I loved 'Frasier' when they showed it over here and watched it religiously every Friday on Channel 4. Frasier was very funny and witty and had clever scripts except... they had a British character. Daphne was supposed to be from Manchester in the north of England but was played by an actress from the south of England who couldn't do the accent. (British accents and dialects can vary enormously even over very short distances, drive an hour in any direction and people will speak differently). She had two brothers, one of whom had a Scottish accent and one of whom had a Dick van Dyke style cockney accent. She would often talk about her life in Manchester, hanging around the docks, watching the fishing boats come in. Manchester is thirty miles or so inland, and its only docks were on the canal for unloading coal and cotton. And so on...
Of course most US viewers would be unaware, but British viewers tended to roll their eyes somewhat.
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