Voir Dire Process

Voir dire (/ˈvwɑːr dɪər/; often /vɔɪr daɪər/; from an Anglo-Norman term in common law meaning "to speak the truth") is a legal term for procedures during a trial that help a judge decide certain issues:

• Prospective jurors are questioned to decide whether they can be fair and impartial.

• Witnesses are questioned to decide their competence to testify.

• Witnesses are questioned to decide the admissibility of evidence.

For Case #24JV30195 this took place the morning of Nov. 15, 2024

Qualified potential jurors may be excluded from juries through the use of ​“peremptory strikes.” Peremptory strikes can easily be used to discriminate because parties do not need to provide a reason or meet a specific standard to exercise these strikes.

• The City Attorney gets 3

• The G.A.L. gets 3

• The Respondant gets 3 to use during Voir Dire process of jury selection

6-3 seems a bit unfair Doesn't it?

A comment was made during the Voir Dire process that "they had never seen so many attorneys in the pool (of jurors) before.", Everyone in the room laughed, and agreed, including my own advisory council. I was just being very observant and trying to manage as best as I could being a trial lawyer facing an already uphill battle.

Each potential jury member had filled out a packet of pre-determined questions to help illustrate a little bit about their demeanor or thought processes for the lawyers to get a clue on who to eliminate from the pool of apx., 70 members, down to 6, with 1 alternate juror, so 7, with the jurors not knowing who the alternate is the whole time until just before deliberations start. The process moves very quickly, time is very limited and your first time through it, you are not going to know what hit you. Fortunetely, I had at least gone through it once before, so I knew a little about what to expect. Developing a good shorthand note taking process is recommended and even with that in place it can still be a challenge, especially if you are not used to doing this type of thing on a daily basis, like your opponents. Certain juror packets are held back and some of the jurors are called in for extra questioning. Each juror, for further questioning is called in one at a time where council can ask more questions for note taking. Often times, if both sides are in agreement to eliminate a potential juror, that juror can be dismissed at that time. After all of the premptive strikes are played and other questions are answered a panel of 6 is settled upon with a 7th juror as the alternate juror as mentioned above.