Free With Registration: Savvy Use of Social Networking Sites
Daniel L. Brown, a partner at Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton, and Aimee R. Kahn, an associate at the firm, write that some recent court proceedings demonstrate that an adversary's MySpace or Facebook page may sometimes contain the all-important smoking gun, and such sites can potentially be used to serve legal process on an adversary. However, the ability to use information discovered from a social networking Web site as evidence has not yet been fully tested in courtrooms, and attorneys must understand the evidentiary and ethical implications of seeking and discovering such evidence.
Daniel A. Ross, a partner at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, discusses how courts are using jury instructions and bans on electronic devices to combat the serious problem of "Internet-tainted" jurors and whether, in light of the proliferation of media reports of juror Internet misconduct, courts and attorneys may want to consider options beyond initial instructions to deal with this new form of potential jury taint.
Which Appellate Division Rulings Bind Which Trial Courts?
Michael Gordon, a partner at K&L Gates, asks: "Is an Appellate Division decision from one of the four New York state judicial departments binding on the trial courts of the other judicial departments, where the appellate divisions of those other judicial departments have not yet spoken on the subject issue?"
Defining Civil RICO 'Enterprise' After 'Boyle'
Hervé Gouraige, a shareholder with Epstein Becker & Green, writes that corporate defendants may now want to focus the courts' attention in civil cases on whether the RICO enterprise, quite apart from the corporate structure, has any structure of its own and indeed whether such structure is ascertainable.
