Use Social Networking Tools to Find Out About the "Players" in Your Trial

The internet, as most of us know it, is less than 14 years old. I'm talking about the easy to use World Wide Web and links that when clicked, instantly take you to information packed web sites.

Relatively new Web 2.0 social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, Youtube, and Plaxo all offer easy and inexpensive ways to get a pretty good snapshot of who you're dealing with on the other side of your case. Not only can you find out what the political views of opposing counsel are, but you can also find out what a juror or key witness did last weekend while vacationing in Lake Tahoe.

Beginning earlier this month, MySpace and Facebook both signed deals with Google to allow publicly available status updates to be indexed in real-time by the search giant. Twitter's been allowing Google to index its tweets for awhile now.

What you need to understand is that the amount of information that can be found about someone using social networking searches is almost unlimited. In some instances, you can learn about what recent blog opposing counsel's expert just posted his opinion on or, which holiday party the opposing party had too much to drink at last Saturday night.

These new tools offer game changing applications that allow you to stay in touch, connect with old friends, make new friends, market your firm, and build your practice in a way that's never been available to anyone at anytime in the history of the world.

Tiger Woods would be the first to tell you that all of these new social networking sites also have the very real potential to share, without your permission or knowledge, some or all of your personal and professional life with everyone else in the world. To allow others to easily share private information and photographs with the rest of the world with the simple click of a mouse.

This new information resource gives trial attorneys the ability to instantly learn a new fact about opposing counsel or anyone else on his side of the counsel table. This can be a game changer when it comes to winning trials. Sometimes it's the little things that can make a big difference in the outcome of your trial. Understanding this, smart lawyers have started to incorporate social networking background searches into their pre-trial preparation efforts. Many start their searches at the beginning of a case.

To start your search on social media sites, try searching Twitter by going to http://www.search.twitter.com. A relatively new Facebook application that allows you to search many different areas of Facebook can be found at http://apps.facebook.com/advancedsearch/ Other social networking sites offer similar search options. Use Google to find the search link that works best for you.

Probably the best way to learn more about these social networking sites is to set up a real or dummy account with the various settings at a privacy level you're comfortable with. Play around with the available search options and see what you can learn about someone else.

If you like, I invite you to join me on Facebook and adding me as a friend at http://www.facebook.com/jon.mitchell.jackson. Also do the same on Twitter by going to http://www.twitter.com/mitchjackson. And if you'd like to practice, feel free to see how much you can learn about me from searching only the social networking sites. Where was I born? What are my interest? What did I do last weekend? What are my political views? What can you expect me to do or argue at my next trial?

Enjoy all the information and fun that these new social networking tools offer. When it comes to your profession and pre-trial preparation, think about using these tools to find out about who is sitting on your jury and all the players on the other side of your case.

Note- Other uses for searching social media that we've actually used this past year are to (1) "research" legal issues to try and get a feel or pulse on current social feelings or attitudes in specific states, counties or towns; (2) stay current on local news, issues, and people; (3) learn more about our judge, jury, court staff, and insurance representatives.