Articles Posted in Law and Technology

A lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court in Chicago, Illinois accuses four defendants of creating a fake Facebook profile of a teenage boy which claimed the teenager was gay. The suit contends the defendants created a fake profle with malicious intent to disparage and damage his reputation.

The fake profile has since been removed, but at one point it had close to 600 facebook friends. The plaintiff is concerned that the false information contained in the profile will follow him around through life.

Sadly, the internet has a life of its own. Items posted to Facebook and other social networking sites exist in cyberspace with little or no verification of veracity.

There is little doubt that technology has changed the way we communicate with each other. In the past several years social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter have allowed ordinary citizens to connect with one another in extraordinary ways. Trial Lawyers have always been concerned with influence outside information might have on jurors who are actively deliberating important matters in trial courts. At the intersection of the courtroom and technology we are confronted with an Interesting phenomenon. Facebook musings and tweets are now coming to you straight from inside the jury room.

In Philadelphia a juror on a major capitol murder case announced to Facebook that everyone “should stay tuned for a big announcement” before a verdict was announced in a trial that lasted more then five months. This is not an isolated incident. Apparently people are tweeting and facebooking live from the courthouse everyday.

Technology is a part of everyone’s life. People feel compelled to share the most intimate details of their personal lives with people they hardly know over the internet. It should come as no suprise that jurors are sharing the details of the courtroom online. The question for judges and lawyers is how do we deal with this. We live in interesting times.