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Is it appropriate for an attorney on trial to try and like each of the jurors who are
now sitting on his case on Facebook? Would you like to learn the answer? Come join me
as I share with you this remarkable information. Hi. I'm Gerry Oginski. I'm a New York medical
malpractice and personal injury trial lawyer practicing law here in the state of New York.
Imagine this scenario: an attorney is on trial, he's just finished jury selection and now
he has the names of 6 jurors and 2 alternates who are now sitting as jurors on his particular
case. Is it appropriate for him to go home that night, go onto the computer, go onto
Facebook, try and find each of the jurors and then attempt to like them so that now
he can actually see their Facebook pages in an attempt to get into their minds to know
what they have done in their past, to see what kind of interests they have and to see
what they like doing? Is that appropriate? I will tell you from a common sense standpoint
it's clearly not a good idea. During the course of trial, an attorney is never supposed to
have any contact whatsoever with the jurors. You don't want to give the perception that
you are somehow trying to gain an advantage or have access to a particular juror to gain
information that the other attorney does not have access to. Well then you can also make
the argument well that the other side can try and do the same thing and try and like
that person's Facebook page in an attempt to see what they have on their Facebook page,
to see who their friends are and to see what they've done. There have been some instances
where an attorney's investigator or somebody in their firm has tried to gain information
to investigate a particular juror through Facebook. And the common consensus is that
if you are doing surreptitiously and the juror or the person who is being asked to like the
page or to like you or to friend you, in the course of social media does not truly understand
why you're doing it then that is unethical and something you should not be doing. So
what's the bottom line? The bottom line is an attorney should be trying to friend a juror
on Facebook or any other social media. So why do I share this information with you?
I share it with you just to give you an idea and an insight into how Facebook and other
social media are affecting our daily lives as attorneys when we bring cases here in the
state of New York. You know, you probably have questions of your own. And if your matter
happened here in the state of New York and you do have legal questions, what I encourage
you to do is pick up the phone and call me. I can answer your legal questions. This is
something that I do every single day and I welcome your call. You can reach me at 516-487-8207
or by email at Gerry@Oginski-law.com. Well that's it for today's quick video. I'm Gerry
Oginski, have a wonderful day!