Facebook Justice

It's hard to imagine a world without social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. Even though most people hadn't heard of the concept three years ago, now everyone, it seems keeps track of family, babies and their social events by means of sites like these. I know that I love Facebook for the sheer number of people I have reconnected with who had been out of my life for more than a decade.

But you may have also heard that the sites are putting a strain on the justice system. Between informational sites like Google and micro-blogging sites like Twitter, along with the social networks, there is so much information on the web that jurors are understandably tempted to look for their own information instead of keeping their knowledge to their case independently.

This is troubling, because the entire idea of the trial is to allow the judge to keep out the things that really don't matter. Does it matter that a man had a DUI 20 years ago if he's involved in a contract dispute now? Really, it doesn't, but it might to a member of Mothers Against Drunk Drivers. Similarly, a religious blog might turn off jurors, even if the content had nothing to do with their present case.

The "common law" as it exists about trials and trial procedures has literally taken four centuries to develop. Granted, it has changed significantly during that time, but I doubt at any time that the legal community will endorse jurors as detectives. We need their consensus, not their deductive skills.

So don't be offended if a judge tells you to cool your heels during a trial. This is quite reasonable, at least until they come up with a legal site halfway as good as Google or Facebook.