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An Anonymous Coward writes:

Mining prospective jurors' Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts is common practice for many attorneys looking to spot biases that might cost their clients a fair trial.

Now, a federal judge's ruling in a copyright battle between Silicon Valley heavyweights Oracle and Google has reignited debate [sanluisobispo.com] about the practice while also offering a potential middle ground.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup, raising concerns about prospective jurors' privacy, said attorneys could research the jury panel, but would have to inform it in advance of the scope of the online sleuthing and give the potential jurors a chance to change online privacy settings.

Otherwise, they had to agree to forego the searches.

Alsup said prospective jurors are not "celebrities or public figures ... but good citizens commuting from all over our district, willing to serve our country."

"Their privacy matters," the judge said in March.

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