The Conference of Court Public Information Officers (CCPIO), has released the results of an important survey about the role of social media in the courts. The survey, New Media and the Courts: The Current Status and a Look at the Future, polled more than 1,400 court personnel about the ways that “new media” is influencing court administration. The Executive Summary can be seen at the CCPIO website, as can the full survey results (6 MB).
Some of the most interesting findings include:
- About 40 percent of responding judges reported they are on social media profile sites, the majority of these on Facebook. This is almost identical to the percentage of the adult U.S. population using these sites.
- Nearly half of judges (47.8 percent) disagreed or strongly disagreed with the
statement “Judges can use social media profile sites, such as Facebook, in their professional lives without compromising professional conduct codes of ethics.”
Perhaps most interesting to me was the following finding on jury instructions that deal with social media:
- More than half (56 percent) of judges report routine juror instructions that include some component about new media use during the trial.
The CCPIO will continue to study the role that social media does have and should have on the administration of the courts and justice system.
