Pro tip: don't friend request jurors.
This is the sort of ethics opinion that only serves to fulfill the stereotype of lawyers as unethical slimeballs that would sell their first born if it meant more money / fame / power, or any combination thereof. In case your curious, another prime example is the ethics rule that forbids a lawyer from sleeping with clients.
Just for good measure, the American Bar Association issued a 9-page opinion on how it's a bad idea to actively seek connections with jurors on social media; i.e., friend request, follow, etc.
That being said, a lawyer can ethically access the publicly available portions of a jurors social media account. There is plenty of information that can be obtained about a juror from public posts. For example, if a juror were to like a fan page for a particular cause, politician, or event, that could provide insight into how a person would react to a tactic or line of questioning. In most cases, the public portion of a person's Facebook account reveals age, sex, education and possibly even employment status.
iDiscovery Consulting provides this service, and it will be much quicker and affordable than a traditional jury consultant. iDiscovery can even have someone on standby during the voir dire process to provide real-time support in the jury selection process.
No comments:
Post a Comment