Social networking profiles are fair game in the legal system
08/15/2008Hundreds of millions of people around the world maintain profiles on social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Social networking sites are designed to be a cyber meeting place for individuals and their acquaintances, professional, personal or otherwise. An individual's profile can reveal information about employment, social and romantic relationships, and groups or organizations the individual is affiliated with. Many profiles also include picture or video content, often depicting the individual and their friends. What many people are unaware of is that the content they post for others to see may be used in the legal system.
Personal profiles on Facebook and MySpace are used by law firms to gather information about clients and others involved in their cases. According to the National Law Journal, one law firm in Houma, Louisiana has a secretary browse MySpace and Facebook every day for information that could be helpful in cases. In one case, shared custody was secured for their client, whose wife had posted sexually explicit comments on her boyfriend's MySpace page. In another case, a husband's credibility was thrown into question because his MySpace page said he was "single and looking".
Photographs can be especially incriminating. This year, a 17-year-old Wisconsin teen was arrested and charged with sexual exploitation of a minor and possession of child pornography for posting nude pictures of his 16-year-old ex-girlfriend on his MySpace page. When contacted by police and asked to remove the photographs from the site, he refused.
Social networking website profiles are also routinely used by jury consultants regarding the jurors in court cases. Normally, jurors answer questionnaires regarding such personal information as marital status, employment, age, criminal record, etc. However, answers to such questionnaires are not completely reliable because they are not always truthful. This is where social networks come in. Social networks may be used to verify the information a juror has submitted in the questionnaire. If it is determined that a juror has lied on his questionnaire, the case may be overturned on appeal. Furthermore, a lawyer could use information about a juror's favorite book or other interests into a closing statement to sway the jury.
Social networks make public what was once private information. While this may help some, it may harm others. The already established history of cases in which information from social networking sites influenced the decision serves as a caveat for all those who maintain profiles on sites like MySpace or Facebook: the internet is fair game in the legal system.
