Before going to court, it is good to know some of the traditional rules of etiquette and injury lawyers often do not think to explain these to their clients in advance. Although different courts have different specific rules, there are some common rules that the majority of courts I have been in follow…and that you should know about.
First, everyone in the courtroom is traditionally expected to stand when the personal injury judge comes in and/or leaves the courtroom. Often, a bailiff or other court officer will announce “all rise” upon the entrance or exit of the personal injury judge but be prepared to do so whether prompted or not, as a sign of respect for the court.
Second, it is traditional for everyone in the courtroom, unless the personal injury judge directs otherwise, to stand when the jury is entering or exiting the courtroom.
Other traditions which are less common but that you may encounter include beginning the day with the pledge of allegiance to the American flag, some pre-written introduction to the court session. (Example: “Oyez! Oyez! The honorable court of Lakeshore County is now in session, all persons having claims to bring or motions to make may come forth and be heard.”)
Check with your personal injury attorney in advance to find out whether food or beverages are allowed in the courtroom and whether personal items, such as cell phones, are not permitted (and therefore might be confiscated by security).
I know many personal injury judges who are very upset by cell phones going off in their courtrooms and will confiscate and maybe even have any such phones destroyed.
Jury selection will be conducted either on the morning of the first day of trial or at some point in advance of trial. In either case, the process will go something like the following.
Once the potential jury pool has arrived and the injury lawyers and personal injury judge are settled in for the day’s business, the first major step in the trial of a case will be the selection of a jury. This process is set in motion long before you get to the courtroom. At some point, probably many weeks or months in advance of your trial, notices will be sent to potential jurors that have been selected for jury duty for the time period that your case will be tried.
The manner of selection of these potential jurors is random and varies by jurisdiction. Some means by which the lists are compiled include voter registration records, driver’s license and/or identification card lists or some other nondiscriminatory rolls of the jurisdiction’s residents. The notices sent to the chosen jurors will indicate that they are to be present at the courthouse on certain dates to potentially be chosen to serve in a jury.
Jury selection will begin with a room full of many more jurors than you will actually use. The large number is one of the safeguards used to ensure a fair jury. The next step will be to narrow down the number who have shown up into a group that will include those who will ultimately serve as the jury.
Each side plaintiff and defendant will have a certain number of jurors that it can kick out of the pool for any reason (usually strategic) except for reasons that discriminate illegally based on race, age, etc. These rejections are called “peremptory challenges.” Smart injury lawyers use them to improve the chances of a sympathetic jury.
Most civil juries consist of six jurors (although some jurisdictions still use more, up to 12). Also, there are usually one or two “alternates” extra jurors that hear the case and deliberate if one of the main jurors gets sick or otherwise has to leave the jury.
If we ultimately want to choose six jurors and two alternates to hear a case and each side has two peremptory challenges, then we will need to choose 12 from the group of people who have shown up to come forward to be part of the jury selection process (12 minus 2 peremptory challenges from each side = 6 jurors plus 2 alternates).
Once the pool is narrowed down from the big group to the smaller group to be chosen from, the rest of the jury selection process from this point is designed to accomplish two things: first, to identify any jurors who have a clear bias to the parties or cases (these potential jurors are often dismissed by the personal injury judge); and, second, to help the injury lawyers decide when to use their peremptory challenges.
When jury selection begins, the personal injury judge (or, if the personal injury judge plays no part, the first personal injury attorney to ask questions) will tell everyone the names of the parties, a basic description of the issues in the case and the names of witnesses who will testify. The jurors will be asked if they know or are related to any of the parties or witnesses (or each other). If they do, the personal injury judge must decide whether their relationship or knowledge of a party or a witness is likely to make them biased toward that party.
If so, the personal injury judge will dismiss that juror and another juror from the original pool will be randomly selected to replace the dismissed juror. Dismissing a juror on this basis is called dismissal “for cause.” There are no limits on how many jurors a personal injury judge may dismiss for cause.
Other reasons that a personal injury judge might dismiss a juror for cause are that they work for an insurance company; they have religious or other beliefs that prevent them from giving money to a plaintiff; they have a physical or mental disability that would affect their ability to be a juror; or any other reason that would clearly prevent them from being a fair juror.
Once the potential jurors have been asked questions related to clear and obvious bias, the injury lawyers will take turns asking the jurors their own questions. This process is called voir dire.
In a personal injury case, the plaintiff’s personal injury attorney will often want to know whether any jurors think it is wrong to sue whether they have moral or religious objections to lawsuits in general. They might also want to know whether a juror thinks there are too many lawsuits or that the system is being abused, whether the jurors are capable of giving significant amounts of money if the plaintiff proves her case and so on.
The defendant’s personal injury attorney will often ask whether any juror thinks that someone should automatically get compensation when they are injured by someone else or whether any juror is predisposed to assume the defendant is liable just because a lawsuit was filed. How far and on what subjects injury lawyers are allowed to inquire vary by jurisdiction and is often very much left to the discretion of the personal injury judge.
Understand as you watch your personal injury attorney go through this process that this is his first opportunity to create a relationship with the jury. You should talk with your personal injury attorney in advance about how he or she wants you to present yourself during this process. He or she may want you to sit a certain way, make eye contact or not make eye contact with the jurors, make sure you do not look bored or twiddle your thumbs or doze off during selection, etc. Jury selection is your chance to make a first impression on the jury.
I prefer to spend quite a bit of time on voir dire, sometimes as much as an hour, to try to build a relationship with them. Of course, at the same time, I have to be careful not to bore them.
At the end of questioning, the injury lawyers in some order determined by the rules of the court will select which jurors they want to eliminate from the jury using their peremptory challenges. The remaining jurors will become the jury and alternates.
Once this final group is chosen, the personal injury judge will usually dismiss the rest of the potential jurors who showed up that day, have the jury take an oath to try the case fairly, etc., and then take a break to allow jurors to get parking permits, make calls to let people know they will be part of the jury…and so forth.
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Note: This article was sent to us by: Dorian G. at 02022010
1. Your injury lawyer will probably prepare you for some questions
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