I know you're out there. I see your searches.
They come in steadily all week, then surge on the weekend. "Voir dire questions murder case." "Illinois personal injury voir dire." "Voir dire questions in a fraud trial." "Sexual abuse case voir dire." "Jury voir dire in a civil rights case." Sometimes you spell it "voire dire," but you still end up here.
Maybe you're working ahead, because you know that thinking early about the jury makes you think about the case in new ways. Or maybe your trial is Monday morning; your jury instructions and motions in limine and exhibits are in, and you're turning to voir dire because you finally can. You may already have an outline and are looking for a checklist to see what you missed, or you may be starting from scratch.
Whereever you are in the project, you're not looking for a bunch of musing, occasionally amusing essays that may or may not add up to something helpful. You're looking for one list, all in one place, something you can use.
Announcing . . .
For you, voir dire question searcher, Deliberations announces its new Sample Juror Questionnaires library. (There's a link on the sidebar.) On this page is a growing collection of jury questionnaires, either given or proposed, from actual cases. Use them to brainstorm or cross-check your own voir dire questions; as source material in asking your judge to allow a jury questionnaire; or just as a way to think about how an individual juror's background and experiences might shape the way she hears your case.
Please feel free to submit questionnaires for this page, whether approved by the court or merely proposed, and ask your friends to do the same. If you send one, I'll credit you as author or contributor, and link to your website if you'd like. You can E-mail submissions to me at [email protected]; please tell me a little about the case as well, so I can describe it helpfully. Likewise if you're the author of something I've already posted and would like credit, let me know.
(Photo by Korean Resource Center at http://www.flickr.com/photos/krcla/362137815/; license details there.)
