Category: Jury Selection & the Art of Jury Deselection

For an upcoming trial of a plaintiff's catastrophic personal injury case, I always do focus group research and case framing to develop my trial story.  My trial story is tested and vetted.  Importantly, my trial story absolutely depends upon knowing, in advance, all of the facts and expert opinions the selected jury will hear--and only those facts and opinions.

In voir dire, I want to deselect a negative, biased juror using a challenge for cause.  But, first, I have to discover of the juror's true beliefs which hurt my case.  My challenge is to ask questions which make prospective jurors answer more honestly about their beliefs relevant to the case as opposed to defaulting to the acceptable "I can be fair" answer.

In my last Blog, I wrote about the Illinois "set-aside" rule. Under the set-aside rule, the trial judge can deny your challenge for cause to remove a juror based on personal, negative beliefs of the juror; provided, however, the juror also testified that he or she will set-aside those beliefs and will be fair.  

Kurt D. Lloyd shall present Voir Dire:  Designing Questions Which Discover Juror Bias and Which Prove a Winning Challenge for Cause.  Mr. Lloyd is a trial attorney who is the author of the newly published book Jury Selection.

I recently spoke to attorneys on the subject of challenging jurors for cause at a Jury Selection seminar sponsored by the Chicago Bar Association, Trial Lawyers Section.   For me, establishing a valid challenge for cause is one of the most challenging tasks in jury selection.  What is cause to disqualify a juror is difficult.