New Jersey Attorney Law Review Blog

In what appears to be a case of first impression in New Jersey, a Bergen County judge fined a jury foreman $500 for Googling possible sentencing penalties for a defendant in a drug case. The jury's deliberations ended in a mistrial after he shared his concerns with fellow jurors. In the Matter of Daniel Kaminsky , Superior Court of New Jersey, Bergen County (March 13, 2012) .   As wonderful as modern technology has become, this case demonstrates how the availability to readily access the Internet from almost anywhere on hand held devices and smart phones can negatively impact the sanctity of our judicial system.    FACTS Kaminsky participated as a juror in State v. Luis A. Montas, Indictment No. S-149-11, a criminal matter in which Montas was indicted for allegedly selling 1,500 ecstasy pills to an undercover agent.  The jury heard the case over the course of five days in December, 2011.  Kaminsky was designated the jury foreperson. During the jury voir dire process

Before Maria Stengart quit her job, she was already making plans to sue her employer. She e-mailed her lawyer during business hours from her company-issued laptop, though she was circumspect enough to use her personal Web-based Yahoo e-mail account. It was not until discovery in the ensuing hostile-workplace, constructive-discharge case that she learned company lawyers had a copy of the message, which was automatically saved on the laptop's hard drive as a temporary file. Now a Bergen County judge, Estella De La Cruz, has held the e-mail isn't protected as an attorney-client communication, finding Stengart waived the privilege by using the company computer and network even though she sent the e-mail from her personal e-mail account with Yahoo!. The ruling, in Stengart v. Loving Care Agency , BER-L-858-08, is a first for a New Jersey state court and one of only a few across the country to deal with the factual scenario presented. The other cases cited by De La Cruz turned on whe