*/
The use of smartphones and social media pose a risk to jury trials that cannot be completely overcome, a Court of Appeal judge warned.
Giving a lecture at the Criminal Bar Association’s annual conference, Lord Justice Singh stressed that juries are a ‘fundamental feature’ of our system for trying serious criminal cases, and ‘juries take their task very seriously and value the responsibility and trust which are vested in them’.
But, he said, with the use of IT by members of the public in a jury trial ‘occasionally something can go wrong’.
‘These days a smartphone can do so many things that were undreamt of even a few years ago; and can do so almost instantaneously,’ he said. Singh LJ recalled an incident during a murder he had tried at Lewes in 2013 when his ruling rejecting a submission of no case to answer against one of two defendants had been circulated on social media by someone in the public gallery.
‘Thankfully it was possible to have this material removed quite quickly and no one suggested that any member of the jury had seen it,’ he said.
Singh LJ said: ‘One cannot emphasise enough the warning that the judge now gives to jurors at the start of a trial not to research the case on the internet, including the possibility of a contempt of court and penal sanctions being imposed.
‘But one cannot guarantee that there will never be problems when the use of smartphones is so quick and easy.’
The use of smartphones and social media pose a risk to jury trials that cannot be completely overcome, a Court of Appeal judge warned.
Giving a lecture at the Criminal Bar Association’s annual conference, Lord Justice Singh stressed that juries are a ‘fundamental feature’ of our system for trying serious criminal cases, and ‘juries take their task very seriously and value the responsibility and trust which are vested in them’.
But, he said, with the use of IT by members of the public in a jury trial ‘occasionally something can go wrong’.
‘These days a smartphone can do so many things that were undreamt of even a few years ago; and can do so almost instantaneously,’ he said. Singh LJ recalled an incident during a murder he had tried at Lewes in 2013 when his ruling rejecting a submission of no case to answer against one of two defendants had been circulated on social media by someone in the public gallery.
‘Thankfully it was possible to have this material removed quite quickly and no one suggested that any member of the jury had seen it,’ he said.
Singh LJ said: ‘One cannot emphasise enough the warning that the judge now gives to jurors at the start of a trial not to research the case on the internet, including the possibility of a contempt of court and penal sanctions being imposed.
‘But one cannot guarantee that there will never be problems when the use of smartphones is so quick and easy.’
The Chair of the Bar reports back
By Kem Kemal, CEO, Henry Dannell
By BSK Financial Planning
Mário Barroso, Head of R&D and Method Development at AlphaBiolabs
Susie Griffin on the admin that keeps barristers from billable work
Clement Cowley, Partner at The Penny Group, explains how global events can influence the performance of pensions and ISAs, and why taking a long-term approach to investing is often the most effective strategy
Kick off your career at the Bar Council’s Pupillage Fair this October – it’s one of the most valuable opportunities for aspiring barristers, says Amelia Clegg
Join us on Saturday 21 November 2026 at Leeds Beckett University and see for yourself why the North continues to be an exceptional place to build a career at the Bar
The golden age of advocacy? David Langwallner pays homage to the filmic if contentious barrister Sir Edward Carson and some of his contemporaries
Henry Fingerhut outlines what the Bar Standards Board AI guidance means for early career barristers
Not yet, says Jacob Turner. Regulation, unlike the technology itself, is a domain the legal profession can still control
