I’ve known and admired my friend Gerry Spence for thirty plus years. I’ve been privileged to have been invited to teach at his Trial College in Wyoming every year since it began over a decade ago. He is particularly gifted in the skill of jury selection. He tried a case in October of last year in federal court in Iowa. It involved two black men who had been wrongfully convicted and in prison for some 25 years until their innocence…
In a case we recently settled the plaintiff was working in an overhead bucket when he contacted a power line and was seriously injured. Here is the outline I was working on for jury selection. It will give you an idea of the general subjects I like to cover. In this case I intended to concede our client had been distracted and had some responsibility, but under Washington’s pure comparative negligence law the jury must compare that to the knowledge,…
Here are a few ideas about jury selection for you to consider. Perhaps something here will be helpful to you. PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS After the court has questioned and excused jurors, figure out how many of the panel you should concentrate on. Do that by counting. Count them by including the basic twelve jurors, the number of alternates allowed, then add the number of excuses allowed by the court to all sides, add an arbitrary number for possible excuses for cause and…