To reinforce the rule of law and for the law to be widely known it must be openly and frequently brought into public view and made part of public discourse. It will be a long time before we see Donoghue v Stevenson “trending” on Twitter, or receiving tens of thousands of “likes” on Facebook. But sudden changes or dramatic turns in legal understanding brought about by a court judgment will and frequently do attract significant attention in both venues. And it is this attention, whether triggered by a court’s own twitter account or the accounts of court observers that enhance awareness of the changes and facilitate the process for understanding “new” law.

See also http://ccct-cctj.ca/?p=8261 and http://ccct-cctj.ca/?p=7850 for other references to service by social media.

To read more visit http://www.ncsc.org/Newsroom/Connected.aspx.

Read more on their website: Courts of Nova Scotia Enter The “Twitterverse”. Also from Slaw, Twitter in the Court! Twitter in the Court! by David Bilinsky.

The objectives of the survey are:
• to consider the impact of online social networking on the legal profession and practice;
• to analyse whether there is a need for bar associations, societies and councils to come together to address this global issue and develop guidelines regarding the use of online social networking within the legal profession and practice; and
• to ascertain whether there is a need for the IBA to work with member bar associations, societies, councils and law schools to devise guidelines and toolkits regarding the use of online social networking within the legal profession and practice.

Survey questions were included that gauged how the bar felt about judges use of social media generally, during trial and juror use.

On the present topic, an American survey was published by the Federal Judicial Center: Jurors’ Use of Social Media During Trials and Deliberations. A post by the United States Courts outlines a few interesting results.

Hat tip to The IT Law Community’s blog post.