Jury duty

When I first started practicing law, way back in the 1980’s, lawyers were exempt from jury duty. The rules changed, though, and I’ve been summoned to jury duty twice.  

Once was for criminal court, and as soon as the defendant saw us all gathered in the hall, he decided to take a plea bargain.

But then there was the auto accident case ...

Jurors are selected through a questioning process known as voire dire.  The purpose of voire dire is to uncover bias, reasons why someone cannot be a fair and impartial juror.  Sometimes a juror is dismissed “for cause”, meaning there’s an objective reason why the juror can’t serve.  An example would be, the potential juror went to high school with one of the lawyers.  Bias is assumed, and the juror is excused.

But during voire dire each lawyer is looking to find the jurors he thinks will most likely favor his case.  And each lawyer is given a specific number of peremptory challenges, i.e., he can dismiss a potential juror simply because he doesn’t want that person on the jury.

In federal court, the judge will question the jurors while the lawyers listen.  But in New York State courts, the lawyers do the questioning.  Sometimes the judge isn’t even in the room during voire dire.

So I found myself in a room with about 24 of my fellow potential jurors, facing a group of lawyers.  I didn’t know any of the lawyers, but within a short time, I knew that I would not be serving on that jury.

It seems that the accident took place about two miles from my house, in a busy intersection.  I could describe every store on each corner of the intersection.  And one of the defendants lived in my town.

They called six names (not mine) and asked the people to sit in the jury box.   The lawyers began to question each potential juror.

And I noticed that the plaintiff’s attorney asked each and every potential juror “do you know anyone who works in property and casualty insurance?”

Hmmmm....

Well, my entire legal career has been in the insurance field, sometimes with law firms, sometimes working in-house for an insurance company, and always focused on property and casualty insurance.

I couldn’t help but speculate ... did the adjusters who handled the auto claim before the matter was in litigation decide that the plaintiff caused the accident?

So by lunch time they’d chosen their six jurors, and told the rest of us to come back after lunch so they could pick two alternates.  You always make sure to have alternate jurors.

I must have been the second or third person called to the jury box after lunch.

The plaintiff’s attorney asked me where I lived, and I could see him scrawl a follow up question on his legal pad.  Then he asked if i worked outside the home, and when I said “yes”, he asked what I did for a living.

“I’m a property and casualty attorney, currently employed by the —— Insurance Company.”

From the look on his face I could tell that he’d used up all his peremptory challenges.

He looked at all the defense attorneys and said one word: “Cause?”

I don’t think any of them wanted me either.  They all replied “Cause.”

And I had the rest of my Friday afternoon free...