Jury Questionnaire
In considering the use of effective juror questionnaires, the first question should always be: Will a juror questionnaire be helpful in this case?
One might be surprised at the resistence coming from some trial judges about the use of juror questionnaires. Some judicial officers are hesitant to use questionnaires because they believe that they are more time consuming than the type of voir dire which they like to use, allowing the attorneys know no more than 20 minutes to question a panel of 18 or more jurors. Other judicial officers seem to come from a school which believes that jury questionnaires are meant to ascertain lots of irrelevant, personal information about perspective jurors which would be of no help in arriving at a verdict in the case. (Many of the judges who fall into the above 2 categories were not experienced trial lawyers when they ascended to the bench, and therefore do not have the perspective of how important jury selection is, not only in winning or losing the case, but in terms of how comprehensive the consideration of various aspects of the case will be.)
The fact of the matter is that juror questionnaires can be very useful in reducing the amount of time which otherwise might be utilized in voir dire. For example, if a jury panel is called to report to a court room at 10:00, they can be handed juror questionnaires and then be excused after filling out the questionnaire. They return the next morning ready for the voir dire examination to begin. In the meantime, the attorneys have had time to collect the questionnaires, photocopy them or, with appropriately designed questionnaires, input the data into computer data basis, and study the results so that they can pinpoint their questioning.
It is usually helpful to give consideration to asking "objective" questions in a jury questionnaire-questions which do not cross the line so as to seem to be more tilted toward one side of the case. The reason for this is that the judge will ultimately make the decision as to what questionnaire is used, and what questions will be included. If the judge sees that one side or the other is attempting to take advantage of the situation, such conduct may bring the whole questionnaire issue to a screeching halt.
- Thomas G. Stolpman
Stolpman, Krissman, Elber & Silver LLP
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