Voir Dire: What's it to YOU?

[rachelgarcia]

I'm a graduate student working on a project about voir dire. I'm researching codes of procedure, government codes, etc. to get a handle on the legal considerations behind it. What I'm really interested in is getting some feedback from legal professionals who actually participate in jury selection...what are your major considerations when you select a jury (i.e., demographics)? are you asking relatively formatted questions, or do you ask follow-up questions as needed? and where are the opportunities for improvement in the voir dire process as you see them? Any and all comments would be welcome; I can read about the process all day long, but I'd love to hear some comments/opinions from hands-on legal professionals. Thanks!

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Originally posted by rachelgarcia
I'm a graduate student working on a project about voir dire. I'm researching codes of procedure, government codes, etc. to get a handle on the legal considerations behind it. What I'm really interested in is getting some feedback from legal professionals who actually participate in jury selection...what are your major considerations when you select a jury (i.e., demographics)? are you asking relatively formatted questions, or do you ask follow-up questions as needed? and where are the opportunities for improvement in the voir dire process as you see them? Any and all comments would be welcome; I can read about the process all day long, but I'd love to hear some comments/opinions from hands-on legal professionals. Thanks!

This is an old question but let's answer it. There are form questions that you always want to ask as a preliminary in types of situations. You do need to have some experience with regard to answers to know how to follow up. You should be able to find books in a law library that discuss this topic. There are demographics out there that are compiled by legal research agencies. For example, in car accident injury cases it is frequent that plaintiffs attorneys will usually try to stack the deck with them, as they are more supposedly more sympathetic to insurance payouts. It is important to study the general demographics but be especially astute when it comes to specifics as to who may have bias and those who have experience and see how to ask the questions will be at an advantage and will know the obvious follow up questions.