During jury selection, try to create an atmosphere in which the potential jurors won't feel too intimidated to honestly answer your questions about the issues you present to them, such as their real feeling about what they've been reading in newspapers lately about tort reform.
Try to make the jurors feel as comfortable as they would feel after the trial if they retired to a bar and chatted with a newspaper reporter about what went on during the jury deliberations. Whatever they'd feel comfortable telling the reporter, you'll want them to tell you during jury selection before the trial begins.
Case in point: The recent events in Madison County after a mesothelioma trial, as reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and at Legal Underground.
Evan:
Even in the most thorough voir dire, say, where a member of the panel says that they are aware of Madison County's reputation as a place for outrageous verdicts, they will still be rehabilitated. See the King trial (topic of the Post_Dispatch article).
These same people will claim that they can be fair in the particular case they sit on when asked by defense counsel.
I found out the hard way.
Posted by: Barry Julian | May 31, 2005 at 05:16 PM
Well put. Thanks for the comment.
Posted by: Evan | May 31, 2005 at 06:36 PM