How jury selection works

Florida has built into its Constitution the right to a jury trial in civil cases. Most civil cases are tried before six jurors. Jurors are chosen from drivers’ license information and can come from anywhere in the county that the case was filed. They are randomly selected from a pool of potential jurors called to serve on a particular day. Approximately 300 to 400 people are chosen to serve in a particular term and about 50 are then chosen to sit on a case.

While service on a jury is usually over in a day or so, if a juror is chosen to actually hear a case, they review that case for as long as the case takes to conclude. It is against the law for an employer to fire someone for missing work to serve as a juror.

The process of selecting a jury is called the voir dire process. Voir dire is Latin for “speaking truly.” That is because potential jurors are sworn to tell the truth during their examination by the lawyers.

I tell jurors that having opinions that justify their not being selected for a jury doesn’t make them a bad American or mean those opinions are wrong. It just means they would be a better juror in some other case.

Outside the presence of the panel, the parties’ attorneys can exercise challenges to the potential juror’s service. If it is apparent to the judge that a potential juror cannot be fair to one side or the Ted Babbitt

Babbitt and Johnson, P.A. other, the judge will issue a challenge for cause.

In addition to challenges for cause, the parties have a limited number of, what are called, peremptory challenges. A peremptory challenge can be used by a party for any reason or for no reason at all, so long as it is not based on race, religion, or national origin.

Many people dread jury service because of the inconvenience — but in my experience, people who serve on a jury feel that service is very satisfying, memorable and civically rewarding.

Theodore Babbitt is senior partner in the law firm of Babbitt & Johnson, P.A., and is a member of the Inner Circle of Advocates, which is limited to the top 100 personal injury lawyers in the United States.