Jury Selection

Finding a panel of people who can hear your case and give it a fair hearing can make an important difference in your trial.

• Who is a “good” juror?
• Who is a “dangerous” juror?

Everybody has biases. Everybody has certain legal cases they could not give a fair hearing to. There are people who can’t give your case a fair hearing. They should be jurors on a different case if they can’t give our case a fair hearing. There are people for whom your case will really connect.  They could find in your favor if the evidence dictates it.

Identifying what type of people are good risks and what type of people are dangerous risks is part of our jury selection process.

• What type of questions in Voir Dire will help you to find the dangerous jurors and who is safe?
• How do you ask them?
• What juror responses give you an idea of who is dangerous and who is safe?

Supplemental Jury Questionnaires can help you to carefully analyze your jury pool. SJQs can be pre-tested.

Having another set of eyes, ears, and perspectives in the courtroom during Voir dire can be invaluable.  You can focus on your questioning and I can focus on the responses of everybody on the panel.  Putting several minds together in selecting who to strike almost always improves the process.

• It is difficult to assess audience response when you are the speaker.
• An outsider watching can often greatly help the analysis.
• A non-attorney perspective can make an important contribution. After all, those jurors aren’t attorneys, are they?
• A trial consultant on the team can make your legal team stronger and safer in navigating the voir dire process.

Jurors are not surprised or put off by trial teams having an expert on jury selection or analysis.  If you’re comfortable with the idea and understand the wisdom of it then they will too.

Most judges allow the Trial Consultant to sit at council table during this process which is the best way to operate.

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