Jurors’ texting, tweeting, blogging and Googling have resulted in mistrials, challenges and appeals in courthouses around the country. As judges grapple with the myriad complexities involved in keeping jurors off their smartphones, iPads and Facebook pages, trial lawyers need not sit on the sidelines. Rather, counsel should aid courts in making sure clients receive fair trials by impartial juries, despite the onslaught of technology at jurors’ disposal.
A good place to start is with voir dire. Counsel should use voir dire to help weed out potential jurors who may be unable or unwilling to pull the plug on their Web browsers for the duration of a trial. In jurisdictions where attorneys submit voir dire questions in advance for the judge to read to potential jurors, attorneys should include questions that educate would-be jurors about the rules of the road: no independent computer research, no blogging about the case and no Facebook excursions to read about the lawyers, parties or witnesses.
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