ABA: Lawyers can scour jurors’ social media sites

FILE - In this March 29, 2013 file photo, Michael Steinberg, second from right, exits Manhattan federal court with his defense attorney Barry Berke in New York. Lawyers have been given the green light to scan the social media sites of jurors. The American Bar Association says it’s ethical for lawyers to scour online for publicly available musings of citizens called for jury service and even jurors in deliberations. Last year, New York defense attorney Berke hired a jury consultant firm and instructed it to search social media sites of potential jurors in the insider-trading case of Steinberg. The consultant was looking for anti-Wall Street comments or any other signs of possible bias. Prospective jurors thought to be biased were removed from the pool. (AP Photo/Louis Lanzano, File) FILE - In this March 29, 2013 file photo, Michael Steinberg, second from right, exits Manhattan federal court with his defense attorney Barry Berke in New York. Lawyers have been given the green light to scan the social media sites of jurors. The American Bar Association says it’s ethical for lawyers to scour online for publicly available musings of citizens called for jury service and even jurors in deliberations. Last year, New York defense attorney Berke hired a jury consultant firm and instructed it to search social media sites of potential jurors in the insider-trading case of Steinberg. The consultant was looking for anti-Wall Street comments or any other signs of possible bias. Prospective jurors thought to be biased were removed from the pool. (AP Photo/Louis Lanzano, File)

By Associated Press June 22, 2014 4 min read

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Lawyers have been given the green light to scan the social media sites of jurors.

The American Bar Association says it’s ethical for lawyers to scour online for publicly available musings of citizens called for jury service – and even jurors in deliberations.

But the ABA does warn lawyers against actively “following” or “friending” jurors or otherwise invading their private Internet areas.

Though judges now universally admonish jurors to refrain from discussing trials on social media, the nationwide lawyers group for the first time is addressing how deeply attorneys, their investigators and their consultants can probe for information that might signal leanings of potential jurors, or unearth juror misconduct during trials.

Jurors’ online postings have disrupted many legal proceedings over the years, causing mistrials and special hearings over the effects of Facebook musings, tweets and blog writings about their trial experiences. Lawyers and judges have also been wrangling over how far attorneys can go in assembling a jury with help from online research of jurors’ social media habits.