Juror Tweets in $12.6M Case Teach Lawyer a Lesson: Ask About Web Use

Posted Apr 8, 2009, 06:20 pm CDT By Martha Neil

"Juror Johnathan" may have been a bit of a twit, as the N.Y. Daily News said in a headline, for posting tweets on Twitter.com while awarding a $12.6 million verdict in an Arkansas case.

But his real-time brief posts to the Internet social networking site about his work as a juror don't require a mistrial, a judge in the Washington County Circuit Court case decided Friday, the Associated Press reported.

Upholding the late February verdict in a case brought by investors against Russell Wright and his Stoam Holdings building materials company, Judge Mark Lindsay said the tweets by Johtnathan Powell, 29, were in bad taste but didn't rise to the level of improper conduct, according to the news agency.

Although his client's verdict stands, attorney Greg Brown, who represented one of the plaintiff investors, says he has learned an important lesson from the case, the AP recounts. In the future, Brown says, he will ask potential jurors about cell phone and Internet use. More

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