Jury Selection Is a Lot Like College Admissions
Tell us about yourself? Do you have any hobbies or do any volunteer work? How do you get your news? If you could have lunch with two famous or historical people, who would you choose? Do you have any conflicts with the timing?
No, this was not a college interview but rather the voir dire for a jury selection. I sat in the courtroom for two days as the judge asked potential jurors the same questions over and over again to assess how good a juror they would make for this trial regarding a slip and fall at a grocery store. Some people got knocked off right away because they didn’t “demonstrate interest” or had a conflict. Some answered the questions to both lawyers’ satisfaction and made it on the jury right away. Others required deliberation, much like going to an admissions committee, to determine admissibility. Some got removed by the plaintiff’s or defendant’s lawyers through their allocated peremptory challenges because they did not think the person would vote in their favor.
It was fascinating to watch the process. I tried to ascertain what would get you dismissed straight away. If there wasn’t a timing conflict, it was because the individual could not perform well in the role. For example, one woman had a limited understanding of English and had diabetes; another had just moved to NY so was no longer a resident of Union County. This is similar to a student without the proper rigor, grades, or test scores for a given school. If you can’t do the work, then you are not admitted.
Others required deliberation. One woman was a lawyer who does similar work. Denied. A man who had family members with similar suits. Admitted. A man who claimed to be the primary care provider for his special needs child but as the judge probed, it came out that the child is in pre-school most of the day and his wife and he trade off picking their son up. Reluctantly dismissed.
At times, it was easy to figure out why one side removed a particular juror, but sometimes it was shrouded in mystery. But somehow, as the lawyers side-barred with the judge and potential jurors, discussed, asked follow-up questions, and exercised their peremptory challenge allotments, I saw the jury taking shape, morphing into a perfectly balanced jury in terms of education level, ethnicity, race, background, and gender.
This is much like the shaping of an admission class. There will be the automatic admits and the automatic rejections. Yet, most of the class will be decided based on how they want to shape the class and create that year’s community. You may never know why you don’t get in or for that matter why you do. However, in this instance, I was thrilled that I never even made it into the box.