caemploymentlaw

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Lawyers Allowed to Review Jurors’ Social Media per ABA Ethics Opinion

The American Bar Association (ABA) has ruled that lawyers are allowed to search a juror’s or potential juror’s public Internet presence, which can include postings by the juror in advance of and during a trial. However, sending “friend” requests, “following” or other such access requests are considered an ethics violation, the ABA said.




“In the world outside of the Internet, a lawyer or another, acting on the lawyer’s behalf, would not be engaging in an improper ex parte contact with a prospective juror by driving down the street where the prospective juror lives to observe the environs in order to glean publicly available information that could inform the lawyer’s jury selection decisions,” the ABA’s formal opinion stated. 




One of the more perplexing issues is that jurors can receive social media notifications that they have been searched, such as on LinkedIn. While the ABA deemed this to be ethically sound, its opinion cited a dissenting recent ruling on the matter. A decision by the New York City Bar Association in 2010 said that any notice sent to a potential juror about a search amounts to an unauthorized communication. 




“The fact that a juror or a potential juror may become aware that the lawyer is reviewing his Internet presence when an ESM network setting notifies the juror of such review does not constitute a communication from the lawyer,” the ABA’s opinion said.




Not all states adopt the ABA's opinions and each State Bar Association publishes their own guidelines.

We try a lot of cases so we will watch California's reaction to this opinion closely.




If you have any questions about employment law related matters, please feel free to contact us at www.quintlaw.com or directly by phone 949.458.9675.








Tuesday, June 10, 2014

The firefighter afraid of fighting fires loses his ADA claim

The firefighter afraid of fighting fires loses his ADA claim. Right, you guys? Right?!?