Voir Dire: Picking a Jury May Win Your Personal Injury Lawsuit (II)

by Sheadyn Rogers

Challenges for Cause

After the attorneys complete the questioning of the panel members, the attorneys are allowed to present to the Court challenges for cause in order to ask the Judge to strike from the panel each member that the attorney believes verbally expressed a bias such that the panel member stated he or she could not be fair to all parties and decide the case solely on the evidence.

The Judge typically listens to the questions by the attorneys and answers by panel members during voir dire in order to make fair rulings on the attorneys' challenges for cause. The Judge's goal is to strike for cause any panel member challenged for cause by the attorney who verbally admits in open court that he or she has a bias or prior life experience such that he or she can not be fair to both parties and decide the personal injury case based solely on the evidence.

I have never tried a case in which the Judge did not strike for cause some of the panel members for verbally expressing a bias or prior life experience such that the person said he or should could not be fair to all parties. The panel members who verbally expressed these feelings were, simply put, HONEST people. If you are ever called to jury duty and you feel you have a bias or prior life experience such that you could not be fair to all parties, it is your legal and moral obligation to tell the Judge and attorneys (privately if necessary) so that the integrity of the jury system is maintained. If you hide such information and it is later discovered, it could result in a mistrial and a waste of the Court's time and resources. Please remember that expressing a personal bias or prior life experience in this process does not make you a bad person. To the contrary, it makes you an honest person and one who maintains the integrity of the jury system.

Peremptory Challenges

After the conclusion of the questions of the attorneys and answers of the panel members, each party is also allowed to strike a certain number of panel members for any non-discriminatory reason (note: no panel member should ever be stricken for racial reasons or gender). You and your attorney should be taking good notes and watching the panel members during the entire voir dire process for any signs (including body language, verbal statements, and non-verbal expressions) that would indicate any potential silent bias of the panel members to determine who to strike and therefore exclude from the jury panel.

In Texas District Courts, including Collin County, Dallas County, and Tarrant County, each party is allowed to strike 6 panel members with the peremptory challenges. In Texas County Courts, each party is allowed to strike 3 panel members with the peremptory challenges.

After the Judge rules on challenges for cause, strikes jurors the Court believes expressed a bias, and the parties exercise their peremptory challenges, in Texas District Court, the first 12 remaining panel members become the jury panel. In Texas County Courts, the first 6 remaining panel members become the jury panel.

Winning Your Case During Voir Dire

Assuming that you have a legitimate personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit, and assuming that your attorney competently handles all other phases of the jury trial, many jury trials are won or lost during voir dire. An experienced personal injury trial lawyer should not only possess the basic legal skills to handle the procedural aspects of the voir dire process and other stages of the trial, but also should possess a high level of social skills and knowledge of psychology to maximize your chances of having as many fair and just jurors on your jury panel and eliminating as many potentially biased jurors as possible. Even the best personal injury trial attorneys sometimes miss a silent yet secretly biased panel member during voir dire; however, such risk can be drastically reduced if the right questions are asked during the voir dire process and the attorney uses the amount of care and time to process the background, answers, and details of each panel member. A qualified and experienced personal injury trial lawyer maximizes your chance of receiving the just and fair compensation for your damages. Such damages in a personal injury lawsuit may include medical bills, lost wages, loss of earning capacity, property damages, mental anguish, pain and suffering, loss of consortium, physical impairment, funeral expenses, and disfigurement.

This article is based on Texas tort law. Laws in jurisdictions outside Texas may vary and differ.

About the Author
If you have suffered serious personal injury or lost a loved one due to wrongful death as a result of the negligence of another party, call Plano, Tx personal injury lawyer Sheadyn R. Rogers of Rogers Law Firm at (972) 447-8388 for expert legal help. Sheadyn R. Rogers is Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.

Sheadyn R. Rogers represents clients who have suffered personal injury as a result of car accidents, motor vehicle accidents, trucking accidents, eighteen wheeler accidents, motorcycle accidents, hit and run accidents, product liability, premise liability, and work related accidents in Plano, Arlington, Allen, Frisco, McKinney, Garland, Lewisville, Richardson, and throughout the Dallas Fort Worth metroplex. For more information, please feel free to visit the firm's website at http://rogerslawtx.com.

Picking a Jury May Win Your Personal Injury Lawsuit (I)

by Sheadyn Rogers

If you have been injured in an automobile accident, trucking accident, eighteen wheeler accident, motorcycle accident, construction accident, work related accident, by a defective product, by an unsafe premises, or any accident caused by the negligence of another party, and your personal injury lawsuit does not settle, you and your attorney will most likely proceed to a jury trial. Entire books have been written, lectures have been spoken, and law schools have been built on teaching the process and different stages of the jury trial, including voir dire. Voir dire, the very first stage of a jury trial, may win or lose your personal injury lawsuit.

Voir Dire

Voir dire is latin and means "to speak the truth." It is the first stage of a jury trial in which the attorneys are permitted to ask questions of the panel members (potential jurors) to determine who would or would not be a fair and just juror for the civil lawsuit.

The process typically begins early Monday morning on your trial date when a panel of citizens in your County arrives at the Courthouse for jury duty. Most of these citizens are initially thinking of ways to get out of jury duty and get back to their lives as soon as possible. However, many panel members and eventual jurors become quite interested in the process once they hear about the case because jury duty tends to provide a sense of importance and empowerment to many individuals (it really is an important service to our free country).

The Plaintiff's attorney is allowed to begin the voir dire process by introducing the parties to the panel members and providing basic information concerning the type of personal injury case, the liability allegations involving the case, and damages sought by the Plaintiff. No evidence is introduced and no witnesses testify during the voir dire process. The Plaintiff's attorney then asks questions of the panel members to attempt to discover any potential bias or prior life experience which would indicate that the person would not be fair and could not decide the case solely on the evidence presented during the trial. For example, if a participant stated "I do not think I could ever be fair in this case because I am married to the defendant's daughter," that person should probably not serve as a juror in the case (note: this is very easy example of bias, it can get much more difficult to determine who is or who is not biased or who could or could not be fair).

After the Plaintiff's attorney completes his questions, the Defendant's attorney has the opportunity to also question the panel members to determine any potential bias against the Defendant and to determine whether any participants appear to be overly sympathetic to the injured Plaintiff. For example, if a person says "I was also run over by a truck from the defendant's corporation, it made me very angry at the defendant, and I do not think I can set those feelings aside," such panel member will probably not make it to the jury panel (note: after trying many personal injury cases, you may not believe some of the life experiences you may hear from the panel that are extremely similar to your personal injury case).

(to be continued)

Should You Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer to Handle Claims?

by Dan Haynes

While there are some cases where need for personal injury lawyer isn't there, most cases you may want to hire one who would help resolve your car accident injury claims.If you have sustained minor injuries that require healing time of just a week or two, and if you are knowledgeable with understanding in legal terms then you can resolve your claims without need of an attorney.

 

However, if you are to handle your claim/s, bear in mind to have copy of the accident report handy. Also you need to have bills from health care providers you've checked to address the injuries you sustained. These include hospital bill, ER visit bill, bill given by primary care physician, bill from chiropractor or a physical therapist. Then summarize the bills in accordance to dates of service given by respective caregiver.Additionally, have a track on days absent from your work due to the injury by having a letter from your employer with the number of days you abstained from going to work due to the crash and injury thereof.With these details you can write a demand letter to the adjuster with accident facts and details supporting your case along with summary of medical bills you are demanding and also wages you lost due to abstaining from work. You may also want to demand for damages for pain and mental suffering.

 

However, for supporting the pain and suffering you can tell you had to forgo sleep and say you had to take lots of pain meds. You can say you aren't able to do things with ease that you were able to do before the injury such as playing tennis or going for jogs or say gymming. With all these you can make an offer to settle the claim and cover for the damages.All that said, it should be noted that no adjuster would be willing to pay what you have demanded. 

 

However, there is no need to get discouraged by the decline; you can negotiate until both the parties arrive at an acceptable figure.In spite of taking all needed care and keeping up with the formalities, there is no guarantee you would get you claims straight. There is all likelihood a layman gets conned in the process and only a personal injury lawyer can help you recover what you rightfully deserve through a personal injury lawsuit.If you or your loved one suffered from a personal injury due to dog bite, you may want to know how to proceed to recover the costs you may have incurred on treating the dog attack.

When you suffer from a dog bite injury it's very important that you get medical care immediately, even if it seems a minor attack, immediate treatment is warranted. Failure to get treatment may result in infections; notwithstanding rabies, which could be another big concern. According to the State Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, annually on an average about 4.5 millions are bitten by dogs. The injuries due to dog bites amounting to over 750,000 a year that are warranting medical care and attention.

About the Author
If you or your dear one has had a personal injury experience in state of New Hampshire, hiring an experienced New Hampshire personal injury lawyer is very important to get you a quality representation in front of the jury. So don’t waste time but pick a phone and talk to the injury attorney NH,