NY Bar Association Approves of Investigating Jurors Online

Here is an ethics opinion from the NYCLA that discusses attorneys investigating jurors online.  According to the opinion, 

It is proper and ethical under RPC 3.5 for a lawyer to undertake a pretrial search of a prospective juror's social networking site, provided that there is no contact or communication with the prospective juror and the lawyer does not seek to "friend" jurors, subscribe to their Twitter accounts, send tweets to jurors or otherwise contact them.

This opinion is in keeping with the growing trend nationally to allow and even encourage attorneys to investigate jurors.   One interesting note about this opinion is the duty it places on attorneys who discover juror misconduct.  According to the NYCLA,

Any lawyer who learns of juror misconduct, such as substantial violations of the court's instructions, is ethically bound to report such misconduct to the court under RPC 3.5...

I suspect that this duty is jurisdiction specific.  The local ethics rules in most jurisdictions do not require attorneys to report juror misconduct unless it is either fraudulent or criminal. 

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