Jurors Shouldn't Tweet

The U.S. Judicial Conference—which sets policies for all federal courts except the Supreme Court—sent all federal district judges suggested jury instructions on "juror use of electronic communication technologies" during trial.  The essence of the instructions was simple: risks of social media use by jurors is too high, so jurors should refrain.  Jurors were asked not to reference blogs or the internet to find out information on cases they are assigned to.  Further, jurors should not use technologies such as blogs, Twitter, or other social networking platforms such as Facebook, My Space and more.


While there have been some questions as to why such technologies are not allowed, the answer seems quite simple:  jurors must learn about the case through the courtroom procedures and are not even allowed to discuss the case with each other.  If jurors are allowed to utilize social networking sites, read or post on blogs, or Twitter - there is a higher likelihood that someone may slip up.
Here, social media risks have been assessed, and as with social media law, it is developing!


by:  Benish Shah, Esq. & Sheheryar Sardar, Esq., Sardar Law Firm LLC
For more information on social media law, contact: Sardar Law Firmat sardar@sardarlawfirm.com.
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And … A Conviction From Twittering

In our “Think Before Your Tweet” piece, we discussed the potential risksassociated with ranting via Twitter. With Twitter serving as a new basis for conversation, social media users feel that they are speaking only to their online friends when they post something on a public Twitter page.  Unfortunately, a public Twitter page creates a critical social media risk:  a simple, angry rant can turn into a much bigger deal when it is put in electronic form and essentially published to millions of readers on the internet. Social media law is still developing, leaving room for confusion on part of social media users.

A British man recently learned a hard lesson on social media risk associated with angry Twittering. 

Read more here.

For more information on developing a social media policy, contact:  Sardar Law Firm at sardar@sardarlawfirm.com.

Follow Sardar Law Firm on Twitter: http://twitter.com/sardarlawfirm