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Courts Move To Ban Juror Use of Net, Social Sites

Posted by kdawson on from the tell-no-one dept.

coondoggie passes along a NetworkWorld report on the pronouncement of a judicial conference committee recommending that trial judges specifically instruct jurors not to use any electronic communications devices or sites during trial and deliberations. Here's the committee report (PDF). "If you think you're going to use your spanking new iPhone to entertain yourself next time you're on jury duty, think again. Judges are going to take an even dimmer view of jury member use of Blackberry, iPhone, or other electronic devices as a judicial policy-setting group has told district judges they should restrict jurors from using electronic technologies to research or communicate. ... The instructions state jurors must not use cell phones, e-mail, Blackberry, iPhone, text messaging, or on Twitter, or communicate through any blog or website, through any internet chat room, or by way of any other social networking websites, including Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and YouTube."

3 of 288 comments (clear)

  1. Re:No different than any other sequestering by BrokenHalo · · Score: 4, Informative

    I can't imagine call phones or networked computers are allowed for a sequestered jury anyway

    Here in Western Australia, the courts "ask" you to surrender your phone. Doesn't even matter if it doesn't have a camera.

  2. Re:No different than any other sequestering by the_womble · · Score: 4, Informative

    Exactly, unfortunately most people here need to RTFA.

    The suggested instructions specifically inform jurors that they are prohibited from using these technologies in the courtroom, in deliberations, or outside the courthouse to communicate about or research cases on which they currently serve, the group stated.

    There are a lot of comments below that are obviously by people who did not read that.

  3. Re:No different than any other sequestering by IBBoard · · Score: 4, Informative

    But, as with so many other new laws, why is it even necessary when there are already laws in place?

    The instructions state jurors must not use cell phones, e-mail, Blackberry, iPhone, text messaging, or on Twitter, or communicate through any blog or website, through any internet chat room, or by way of any other social networking websites, including Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

    So that would be "You're not allowed to discuss the case, and refrain from news about it" with the extra clarification of "using any technology available, whether it existed at the time the law was drafted or not". That's still "You're not allowed to discuss the case, and refrain from news about it", whichever way you look at it. Unless someone was completely short-sighted in drafting the original law then these rewrites seem pointless and overly verbose purely for the sake of having another law.