Florida Trials, Juror Misconduct & Social Media- Fourth District Court of Appeal

How is social media affecting Florida trials? Is social media enticing jurors to talk about trials outside of the courtroom? What happens if a juror tweets or texts about a Florida civil litigation trial? Social media is posing a problem when it comes to jurors and trials. Jurors are being caught tweeting and posting comments on Facebook about trials. A juror who communicates about a trial outside of the courtroom can be held in contempt of court and sent to jail for six months. This is serious. However, the Fourth District Court of Appeal recently ruled that tweets made from a juror during a 2014 trial did not affect the jury’s verdict.

Verdict Upheld Despite Juror’s Tweets

• An October 5, 2016 Palm Beach Post article discusses the Fourth DCA’s decision to uphold a jury’s verdict, despite one of the juror’s tweeting about the trial.
• The Fourth DCA is the appellate court for Palm Beach County, Martin County, and Broward County.
• The judges reasoned that ” there is no evidence that any of the other jurors saw, or had any discussions about, (his) tweets.”
• “Thus, it cannot be said that the trial court abused its discretion in concluding that (the juror) misinterpreted the scope of the trial court’s instruction not to post about his jury service and that he did not intentionally violate the court’s order.”
• Did the Palm Beach juror get punished for his actions?
• Will social media continue to create problems during trials?
• How can we make sure that it won’t?
• To read the entire article, click here.