Legal News

Twelve Twittering Men

By Ashby Jones

We here at the Law Blog have been called for jury duty several times (in New York City, it feels like an annual event), but have never been picked to sit. It’s probably a good thing, because, despite our legal training and basic understanding of how trials work, we’d find it excruciating to not be able to use Google to do our own research on issues that arise in the case.

So we’re a bit sympathetic to those jurors who are mucking up cases all over the country by researching, iPhoning, Blackberrying, Twittering — what have you — during trials despite prohibitions against such activities. Click here for today’s story on the situation, from the NYT’s John Schwartz.

The lead anecdote in Schwartz’s story is particularly evocative: Last week, a juror in a federal drug trial in Florida admitted to the judge that he had been doing research on the case on the Internet. So the judge questioned the rest of the jury only to find that eight other jurors had been doing the same thing. The judge in the case had to declare a mistrial, wasting eight weeks of work by federal prosecutors and defense lawyers.

The trend isn’t limited to jurors doing research. Last week, a building products company asked an Arkansas court to overturn a $12.6 million judgment, claiming that a juror used Twitter to send updates during the civil trial.

Jurors are not supposed to seek information outside of the courtroom. They are required to reach a verdict based on only the facts the judge has decided are admissible. Nor are they supposed to be communicating their thoughts on the case to the outside world.

"It's really impossible to control it," said Douglas L. Keene, president of the American Society of Trial Consultants, to the NYT.

Keene told the times that the onus has to be placed on a judge “to explain why this is crucial, and not just go through boilerplate instructions." That said, the juror themselves must self-police. "It's up to Juror 11 to make sure Juror 12 stays in line," Keene added.

Some courts are beginning to restrict the use of cellphones by jurors within the courthouse, even confiscating them during the day, but a majority do not, Keene said. And there’s nothing to stop a juror from doing his or her own research on a computer at home.

Okay, enough on that. In absolutely and totally unrelated news, Bob Dylan has an outhouse. Why? Well, we’re not quite sure, but click here for a healthy dose of bizarreness from celebrity-land, courtesy of the LA Times.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 18, 2009 (boomark / email).