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Keeping It Organized in Jury Selection Part 4: Keeping Track of Your Jurors

By Brian Harris

As discussed in the first three installments of this series, once you have your process well organized to get the information you need from jurors (i.e., through knowing the court; juror questionnaires and voir dire) now you are faced with the final task: What do you do with all of it?

Keeping Track

Of course, there is no ?one-size-fits-all? solution to keeping track of juror information during voir dire. Different people are simply comfortable with different modes of tracking the information.  I personally like using a ?high-tech? charting system that employs post-it notes and a highlighter pen. I find post-it notes great because they can be moved and removed throughout the process so I am not faced with the need to scribble out juror information once that person is removed from the venire. The highlighter, needless to say, highlights the information I consider most relevant about each person.

Keeping it Simple

There are, though, a few simple principles that do apply across the board to keep the task of tracking juror information as simple as possible:

1 )     Weed out what is relevant. If you try to write down everything that each juror says, you are not only more likely to miss something that is relevant, but you are simply not going to be able to get through the tome of information quickly when you have to make decisions. Know ahead of time what you are looking for. Let everything else go.

 2)     Focus only on the information that indicates your adverse jurors. I have to remind even the most seasoned of trial attorneys that jury selection is a misnomer. You can?t keep. You can only boot. If you are focused on the information that is good about jurors, you are taking precious attention away from the task at hand to identify your worst.

 3)     Get help. I said it before, and I will say it again. Unless you are not permitted to do anything in jury selection except be a spectator while the judge conducts voir dire, it is too much for one person to both develop rapport with the jury and keep track of the information you are provided. Whether a partner, associate or a consultant, assign someone you trust the task of documenting the relevant information to discuss with you later.

Creating Your Decision Base

The final organizational strategy I like to use in jury selection is the use of a two-step grading system. As the first step, I personally use the traditional A through F grading system. A?s are ideal jurors (who we will probably lose to the other side?s strikes) and F?s are folks unlikely to find for us no matter what we argue. The second step evaluates the impact a particular juror will likely have on the rest of the panel (L- for low; M- for moderate and H- for high). If a person is articulate, knowledgeable about the subject matter or otherwise demonstrates a presence among the venire, I mark that person as likely to have high impact. With the two-step grading system, I can focus on the D?s, F?s and H?s and make a decision.  

Melissa M. Gomez, Ph.D. is a jury consultant and owner of MMG Jury Consulting, LLC. She holds a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. Her experience includes work on more than 100 jury trials in Philadelphia and across the country, with a focus on the psychology of juror learning, behavior and decision-making. She has more than a decade of expertise in research design and methodology, as well as in behavioral and communication skills training.

This posting is for general informational purposes only and should not be construed or interpreted as advice specific to any matter. Each case is different and no strategy applies uniformly to all.

If you have any questions regarding jury psychology that you would like to see addressed in this blog, please contact Dr. Gomez at melissa@mmgjury.com or call 215-292-7956.

Melissa M. Gomez, Ph.D
MMG Jury Consulting, LLC
www.mmgjury.com

Full post as published by The Legal Intelligencer Blog on September 17, 2009 (boomark / email).