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.