Last month’s column, “Jurors’ Social Media and Internet Misbehavior,”1 reviewed the growing problem of jurors, even in the face of court admonitions, straying onto the Internet or using social media to communicate about their cases. This phenomenon calls for vigilance and aggressive steps by counsel and courts, to prevent, cure and remediate misconduct. Although public perception of jurors’ Internet misconduct has grown, little attention has been given to the potential threat to a fair trial posed by various forms of attorney communications posted on lawyers’ websites, blogs and other Internet outlets. These may be calculated to influence prospective or sitting jurors about a particular litigation.
An attorney (or her agent) could rather easily “deposit” one-sided, misleading, self-serving, extraneous or prejudicial, case-related information onto sites that curious jurors could “find” using simple Google searches. This article alerts readers to this emergent, yet potent, danger.
