The Art of Advocacy

Are social networking sites really a new base to cover in jury research? According to this piece on law.com, the answer is yes. Tamara Thompson writes that the use of social networking sites is a great place to start to get to know a witness, juror or potential business partner.

In her article she discusses various social sites--Facebook, Linked In, MySpace—and strategies for culling information from each. This “due diligence” goes above and beyond a simple Google search when conducting research on the 6-12 people who will be making decisions about your case. And the point is well taken. The statistics speak for themselves: at least half of your jurors will have a social networking page.

Given the increasing popularity of these sites, it would be foolish to ignore them when doing jury research. Beware, though, that you can’t trust all the information potential jurors post about themselves on their Facebook or MySpace pages. With the public becoming increasingly concerned about online security, users are rightfully wary about posting potentially identifying information on the internet. And, of course, it’s easy for people to bend the truth or lie on such sites for whatever reason.

If we can take a lesson from a social networking site, it should be from Match.com, where we learn that “seeing is believing”. There is intrinsic value in laying eyes on a person and asking them specific questions tailored to your specific needs. No matter how revealing social networking pages may be, voir dire will still be crucial. When voir dire is permitted, take extensive time to evaluate your case and determine the types of people you think would be best suited and most harmful to your case.