Jury selection begins with a venire summoned from the community. Prospective jurors are questioned through voir dire, and counsel exercise challenges for cause and a limited number of peremptory strikes.
Methods vary between the struck jury approach, where strikes are exercised against a full panel, and sequential systems replacing struck jurors as they are removed.
Alternative Names:
Jury Empanelment, Selecting a Jury
Why it Matters?
Selection is deselection: counsel cannot choose favorable jurors, only remove unfavorable ones within a limited number of strikes. That makes identifying the most dangerous jurors more valuable than identifying the best ones. In defense practice the recurring targets are jurors with personal experiences mirroring the plaintiff's and those expressing generalized distrust of corporations or insurers.
Frequently Confused with
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
How many peremptory challenges does each side get?
Can counsel select favorable jurors?
