Thursday, January 10, 2013

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)



Labels:

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

0 comments

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home