As of last month, it officially became illegal in California for anyone on a jury to tweet, use Facebook or go on the Internet to get or give any information about the trial.

But what's scary is not the law that just went into effect; it's why.

In London, a juror who couldn't make up her mind on a 2008 verdict and published her dilemma on Facebook and asked her Facebook friends to vote on what she should do.

The judge found out and declared a mistrial.

"It's scary," said Ron Beaton, a San Francisco-based jury consultant. "It's something absolutely new. You can be guaranteed, especially that the bigger the case the more likely it is, the attorneys are monitoring the jurors, looking for tweets, looking for stuff on Facebook."

That's because if a lawyer loses a case, having evidence that a juror was breaking the law by using the Internet to exchange information about a case in progress will almost certainly guarantee a new trial.

Teresa Drenick is a deputy district attorney in Alameda County and recently gave an address on the topic to the state District Attorneys Association.

"The jurors have to make their decision solely on what's presented to them in the courtroom," Drenick said. "And the reason for that is found in hundreds of years of criminal jurisprudence."

"I believe with the advent of smart phones that there's an instantaneous ability to put a lot of information out into cyberspace, as well as get a lot quickly, as jurors sit in the courtroom or deliberation room,” Drenick added.  

Just two months ago, Florida man was kicked off a jury after sending a Facebook friend request to an attractive defendant in a car-crash trial allegedly so he would be removed from the panel and ask her out on a date.

There was a 2009 case in Arkansas where a juror, while sitting in the jury box during the trial, sent tweets to his friends about what was happening in the proceedings.

In Maryland, a juror not only used Wikipedia to get more information about a 2008 trial she was on, but also became Facebook friends with another juror -- allegedly changing the entire dynamic of the jury deliberations.

There have been no such abuses reported in California. If both defense and prosecuting attorneys -- as well as judges -- have their way, the new law will help ensure there won't be.