Maximizing For-Cause Jury Strikes in Civil Cases: Techniques and Practical Tips

This CLE webinar will offer techniques and practical tips to trial attorneys for challenging a potential juror for cause, how to prevent opposing counsel from rehabilitating that juror, dealing with judicial rehabilitation efforts, and preserving objections to the court's denial of a cause challenge. The panel will discuss the difficulty of defining impartiality and changing attitudes on the use of peremptory challenges.

When picking a federal civil jury, each party is only allowed three peremptory strikes unless the court allows more. Some states have significantly abridged peremptory strikes. Although there is no limit to the number of prospective jurors who can be challenged for cause, the court decides whether cause has been established, and the court may question jurors in an effort to rehabilitate them. A number of states have legislated that certain listed opinions or attitudes are insufficient cause for challenge.

Trial attorneys need to understand what would render a potential juror impartial and then get the juror to express those issues in a way that convinces the court. If the request to challenge for cause is denied, any objections to that request have to be preserved and appealed if the case is lost. 

Counsel need dependable techniques and strategies for identifying the attitudes or issues that could spell trouble in a given case, have ways of getting each juror to open up about them, and then make sure that the "cause" for challenge is patently clear to the court. The flip side of challenges for cause is rehabilitation, so both plaintiff and defense counsel will be trying to conduct voir dire in a way that makes rehabilitation of the other side's "favored" jurors more difficult.  

Listen as this panel of eminently qualified speakers offers guidance on successfully challenging a potential juror for cause, anticipating and navigating rehabilitation attempts, and preserving objections to the court's denial of a cause challenge.