The Millennial Juror

So who has thought about the ramifications of presenting a case to a jury including millennials? The Lord Chief Justice of Great Britain has:

In November 2008, the Lord Chief Justice of Great Britain,

Sir Igor Judge, sounded a warning about the generational

shift occurring as web-savvy citizens accustomed to getting

their information online entered the jury box. Noting the

consequences of this shift for the system of trial by jury, the

Lord Chief Justice observed, “If a generation is going to arrive

in the jury box that is totally unused to sitting and listening

but is using technology to gain the information it needs to

form a judgment, that changes the whole orality tradition with

which we are familiar.

In an  article in the Texas  Bar  Journal, authors John G. Browning and Professor Wendy A. Humphrey discuss the issue and conclude:

In short, the majority of these Gen Y representatives clearly

favored the use of technology in the courtroom and indicated

that they would be in a much better position to absorb information

that was presented visually as well as verbally. Yet even

among the multitasking members of Generation Y, the picture

was by no means clear when it came to the possibility of too

much technology in the courtroom and the risk of sensory

overload.

(ljs)