Jurors: Keep Your E-Fingers To Yourselves

Reprinted with permission from FindLaw.com

Jurors empaneled for a trial typically are instructed by the judge not to do anything on their own to learn about the facts and circumstances of the case outside of the courtroom. This traditionally has meant that they should not talk to people with knowledge of the case, they should not visit the scene of the events at issue, and they should try to avoid any television or any newspaper coverage of the trial. But in the new Internet age, it appears that judges have to be even more specific in their admonitions to jurors.

We live in a world where we can find out almost anything from the Internet by the simple movement of our fingers on relatively tiny devices. In just a matter of seconds, from practically any location, jurors can seek information relating to parties, witnesses and the issues at stake in a given trial. This, of course, can taint the jurors such that they would not be deliberating in the case based only on