Personal Injury Law

A dangerous mix: jurors and social networking sites

Lawyers and courts throughout America are becoming more tech-savvy. The Chicago personal injury lawyers at Levin & Perconti are blogging, as our readers are well-aware. Cook County judges are strict about the use of cell phones in the courtroom and judges around the country are beginning to confiscate smart phones during court. As one can imagine, social networking is dangerous when jurors are entrenched in a case. One recent case of juror social networking mishap happened when a juror was filed $250 by a court for posting on her Facebook page that she thought the defendant in the trial was guilty ? and she posted that before the defense even presented its case! In addition to the fine, the witness was required to write an essay on the Sixth amendment. The Sixth amendment guarantees defendants the right to a fair trial.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident of jurors wrongfully commenting on the cases which they are deciding on social networks. A juror in a negligent homicide sent a ?friend? request to one of the witnesses in the trial on which he served. Another incident involved a group of jurors (five) who continued to post messages about their service on the corruption trial of a local politician despite warnings and instructions from the judge not to do so. The facebook postings are serving as the defendant?s basis for appeal. Two years ago, a juror in England was dismissed after polling her friends about whether to convict a defendant. Almost ten percent of judges reported witnessing jurors using social media profile sites, microblogging sites, or smartphones in the courtroom. Individuals who have served as jurors know that judges have warned against discussing the case with outsiders during deliberations. These warnings now include warnings against sharing courtroom information on social media.

To read more about the misuse of social networking on juries, visit DailyFinance.com.

Full post as published by Illinois Injury Lawyer Blog on September 14, 2010 (boomark / email).