JURORS BEHAVING BADLY

A blog about the very small percentage of jurors who fail to follow the judge's instructions, including doing independent Internet research, using social media (such as Facebook) to contact parties and lawyers, and blogging about the trial. Juror misconduct frequently results in mistrials and a waste of resources. Links will be provided to sample jury summonses, jury instructions, and other resources to improve juror education and minimize juror misconduct, thereby promoting fairness of trials.

Friday, April 24, 2020

Post-Covid Courts: Where Do We Go From Here?

In Minnesota committees of judges and court staff are considering how to address the thousands of backlogged cases arising since the courts effectively closed with few exceptions. Here is a link to a story about a federal judge who paused a jury trial and before resuming it is polling jurors as to their virus concerns should the trial resume:

https://www.law360.com/trials/articles/1265533/jury-in-paused-hacking-trial-to-be-polled-on-virus-concerns?nl_pk=cefc1377-7f29-477c-92de-8ebee6ee3d0f&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=trials