Rogue Jurors With An Agenda Can Severely Alter The Judicial Process Advises Experienced Trial Lawyer
In today’s economic and polarized political climate, trial lawyers and jury experts have to keep their eyes and ears open for rogue jurors who report for jury duty with a stealth agenda. Many times during voir dire or the jury selection process, a skilled rogue juror will answer preliminary questions correctly to insure their place on the jury. Lawyers are typically provided with details during the jury selection process such as the name, age, and type of work performed by the juror. Obviously each of the lawyers will try to select jurors who will view their position of the case in a more favorable light. Recent jury research has indicated that close to 20% of all potential jurors that report for jury duty have a biased mindset and will actually seek out jury service as a way to stealthily affect the system according to their own political viewpoint.
A skilled trial lawyer will utilize skills learned over decades to try to root out biased or rogue jurors. However, many jurors simply do not tell the truth during the selection process. Many jury prospects are intimidated by the selection process and are hesitant to reveal personal information.
In this difficult economic and political climate, our experienced Philadelphia trial lawyers and colleagues must deal with pre-loaded conceptions and biases which perspective jurors bring to the courthouse. Additionally, the availability of a blackberry and other texting devices add an additional factor to the stew. In a pure system, a juror should be neutral and decide a case based upon reality depending upon the facts presented by each of the skilled trial lawyers. Since jurors very rarely witness an incident, their reality is skewed by the biases and pre-loaded perceptions that they bring into a courtroom.
I frequently tell my clients that when they go into a courtroom, they get one bite at the apple and it is important that the plaintiff’s attorney carefully screen and evaluate each juror who believe that many cases are frivolous and that plaintiffs are just looking to gold brick their way through life with excessive verdicts. We all have our own inherent biases and I believe that it is best to admit the same to jurors upon the jury selection process and try to get them to open up. We all understand that our perceptions is our reality. As a trial lawyer, I understand that each individual has their own perception of the reality of the situation and a skilled and experienced trial lawyer must successfully communicate an understandable perception of reality in a convincing way to each of the jurors.
Since 1979, the skilled and experienced Philadelphia trial lawyers of Reiff & Bily have litigated many jury trials and work with the finest jury consultants locally and around the nation to develop an understanding of juror prejudices and biases. The rogue juror can take a perfectly excellent case and derail it, and a good and experienced trial lawyer must be constantly aware of the same.
