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Judicial Admonishments are Being Revised in the Age of Facebook and Twitter

Posted by Judge Herbert Dixon | ABA TECHSHOW 2009 Planning Board | Associate Judge, Superior Court of the District of Columbia

March 27, 2009

Two recent articles, "As Jurors Turn to Web, Mistrials are Popping Up," (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/18/us/18juries.html?_r=3&pagewanted=1&hp) and "The One Simple Rule when Jurors go Online (http://jurylaw.typepad.com/deliberations/2009/03/the-one-simple-rule.html), are timely reminders that Web 2.0 is changing the way we conduct jury trials.   I routinely tell jurors not to investigate the case using Google, or talk about the case to anyone, including friends and relatives, but now I need to add Twitter, Wikipedia and Facebook to that admonition. This is another real world example proving that judges and lawyers need to keep up with the technology that is being used in everyday life.