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Keeping it Organized in Jury Selection Part 1: Knowing the Court

By Brian Harris

Job No.1:

As a jury consultant, most folks believe that my only priority in jury selection is to understand the inner workings of each juror and predict what decision he will make at the end of trial.  While it is true that my job is to collect information about attitudes and backgrounds and determine the probability of a verdict orientation, my first jury selection task is a much simpler concept: to help my clients keep the process organized and focused.

Because of the breadth of tasks simultaneously at issue during jury selection, this blog will be posted in parts- each of which will tackle a different piece of jury selection and provide keys to keeping them clean and organized:

 1) Knowing the Court

2) Juror Questionnaires

3) Voir Dire

4) Keeping Track of the Jurors

Although it could potentially be the most important part of trial (you are, in fact, putting together the group of people who will decide whether your client wins or loses), I have seen many attorneys put jury selection on the backburner to of trial preparations. The key to jury selection is to be prepared, not just with your profile, but with the knowledge of how the process will work and how you can navigate it smoothly. My goal is to provide the tips to help you do just that.

Knowing the Court:

Most jury selection processes are a whirlwind of information ? and you haven?t even met the jurors yet. Very few courts or judges within courts conduct jury selection in the same fashion:

How many jurors will you have?

Will there be alternates?

How many strikes do you get?

How is voir dire conducted (the entire venire at once, one at a time, in groups)?

Who conducts voir dire?

If you conduct voir dire, what are there rules (time, content, etc.)?

Are there juror questionnaires?

These are just some of the things you will need to have organized in your head before jury selection begins, and you probably still have some motions to argue.

A Simple Solution to a Complex Issue:

Ask. Yes, that is my earth-shattering piece of advice for this posting. Simply ask the questions I listed above, and do it ahead of time. While some answers may apply to all courtrooms within a jurisdiction (i.e., the number of jurors, alternates and strikes), don?t assume a particular judge will handle jury selection the same way as another just because they reside in the same courthouse. Instead, call the clerk and discuss it. You just may learn a few things about the judge?s preferences that will give you an edge in her courtroom. 

Too many times these simple phone calls don?t get made and trial teams learn jury selection proceedings on the fly.  Without having the full skinny ahead of time, trial teams needlessly make things harder on themselves, clouding their heads with logistics while they should be paying full attention to the jurors. Ideally, the only thing teams should learn on the fly injury selection is the jurors? information. 

Being organized in jury selection is not only critical to having the focus you need to make the right strike choices, but it is also critical because it is the first chance jurors have to see and develop impressions of you. Remember: You never get a second chance to make a first impression.  Don?t be fooled into believing that the trial begins at openings. Jurors will begin to make judgments about you and your clients from the moment you step into the courtroom. A trial team that seems flustered and disorganized during jury selection will be noticed- and not in a good way.

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 July 09, 2009 (boomark / email).