Nicholas Karwacki, an associate in Cozen O'Connor's Commercial Litigation department, discusses juror social media accounts on Lexology. Can attorneys effectively “link in” to the social media presence of potential jurors? According to a 2015 survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, two-thirds of American adults use social networking sites. Nearly 90 percent of adults ages 18-to-29 maintain a social media profile and 77 percent of adults ages 30-49 similarly have social media presences. More astonishingly, 35 percent of seniors ages 65 and older now use social media, a figure that has increased dramatically from 2 percent in 2005. Id. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Reddit, Tumblr, and Tinder reveal intimate details about users, including a user’s political beliefs, social philosophies, recent travels, level of education, social associations, sexual orientation, and relationship status. With so many members of the venire providing valuable information on their social media sites, the question remains: how much, if any, information may an attorney access prior to selecting a jury?
To read the article, click here.