Every trial lawyer wants to know as much as possible about her potential jurors; the more she knows, the better her decision on which venireman stays and which goes. So prudence and competence require careful investigation of those in the pool, including internet research and the use of social media. But are more aggressive measures, such as phone surveys of the jury pool, permissible? Does the answer to that question depend on whether the survey is actually a “push poll”? Those are the issues in an appeal now pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
Dallas lawyer William Brewer concluded he had to measure the effect of the significant publicity surrounding the deadly fire allegedly caused by his client’s finishing material installed in the destroyed home. So he hired a marketing firm to call telephone numbers randomly generated from a potential pool of 155,000 in the area and ask the party to respond to various liability scenarios. One recipient reported the call to the plaintiff’s lawyer, who sought sanctions against Brewer.
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