Judge Clark Issues Pretrial Order Precluding Social Media Contact With Jury Pool​

The court issued a pretrial order prohibiting counsel and the parties or their agents from contacting potential jurors. "In order to assist counsel in preparation for voir dire, the court intends to provide a list of potential jurors that will form the venire in this case a few days prior to the start of trial. . . . All attorneys, parties, and their respective employees and agents, including jury consultants, are prohibited from personally or through another sending an access request to the electronic social media platform of any juror or potential juror, including for example a Facebook friend request or an Instagram request to 'Follow' that juror. Other forms of ESM include LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. . . . All attorneys, parties, and their respective employees and agents, including jury consultants, are prohibited from conducting or causing another to conduct any type of investigation by which a juror or potential juror may become aware that his or her ESM is being reviewed or scanned. . . . This of course requires that any individual using ESM to investigate jurors review the terms and conditions, including privacy features, which change frequently, as well as his or her own network settings before investigating jurors on such platforms."

Barry v. Medtronic, Inc., 1-14-cv-00104 (TXED October 26, 2016, Order) (Clark, USDJ)