Inadmissible

Heath Cheek, a complex litigation associate with Bell Nunnally & Martin in Dallas, has been appointed chairman of the State Fair of Texas raffle committee for 2012. The raffle committee is a fundraising committee that is in its second year at the State Fair, Cheek says. The committee sells tickets and gets corporate sponsorships for the raffle, which will give away 14 different prizes at the State Fair, he notes. “Everybody knows about the State Fair; everyone has a corny dog and rides the Ferris wheel,” Cheek says. “But not everyone knows that the State Fair is a nonprofit corporation, and its job is to provide scholarships to help kids out and help them go to college. . . . I am originally from a very small town in West Texas called Chillicothe,” he says. “I grew up on a farm, and when I was growing up, in elementary school through high school, we would bring animals, steer and pigs, to the fair every year.” Cheek says he received a scholarship from the State Fair that helped him pay for college. He started out volunteering on the livestock auction committee, which is the biggest fundraiser at the fair. When the State Fair said they needed a way to get more young professionals involved and to raise more money for scholarships, he helped with the raffle committee, he says. “I try to give back something to the organization that helped me out when I was a scholarship recipient.” The State Fair of Texas will be open from Sept. 28 through Oct. 21.

Social Media and Jurors

By now, most litigators have heard trial court judges admonishing jurors not to post their views about a case on Facebook during deliberations. But if a trial judge needs a new script to admonish jurors, the Judicial Conference Committee on Court Administration and Case Management (CACM) has one. On Aug. 21, the CACM approved model jury instructions regarding the use of electronic technology to conduct research on or communicate about a case. Among the social media do’s and don’ts for jurors: “You may not communicate with anyone about the case on your cell phone, through e-mail, BlackBerry, iPhone, text messaging, or on Twitter, through any blog or website, including Facebook, Google+, My Space, LinkedIn, or YouTube.” The instructions are in response to a national survey of federal trial judges by the Federal Judicial Center at the request of the CACM committee. “The overwhelming majority of judges take steps to warn jurors not to use social media during trial, but the judges surveyed said additional steps should be taken,” U.S. District Judge Julie A. Robinson of Kansas, the CACM committee chair, says in a written statement. “The judges recommended that jurors frequently be reminded about the prohibition on social media before the trial, at the close of a case, at the end of each day before jurors return home, and other times, as appropriate. Jurors should be told why refraining from use of social media promotes a fair trial.” Sidney Fitzwater, chief judge of the Northern District of Texas, says he has been admonishing juries about the use of social media for years, both when they are seated and when he gives them final instructions. Fitzwater says he’ll look at the new model instructions, but he has yet to have a problem with jurors using social media in his courtroom. “The ones I have in place already are working,” he says. “I’ll stay with those, but I will certainly consider other sources as well.”

Plans to Appeal