Massachusetts lawyers seek voir dire.Trial lawyers in Massachusetts are seeking a right taken for granted Adj. 1. taken for granted - evident without proof or argument; "an axiomatic truth"; "we hold these truths to be self-evident"axiomatic, self-evident obvious - easily perceived by the senses or grasped by the mind; "obvious errors" in many jurisdictions: the right to question prospective jurors about potential biases. The state legislature A state legislature may refer to a legislative branch or body of a political subdivision in a federal system. The following legislatures exist in the following political subdivisions: (Anglo-French; “to speak the truth”) In law, the act or process of questioning prospective jurors to determine whether they are qualified and suitable for service on a jury. of prospective jurors before trial. The current version of the bill would allow each side a minimum of one hour to question jurors. The proposed program is an effort to shed some light on a jury pool that may hold a dim view of plaintiffs. "Without voir dire at trial, we're jumping into the water without knowing what's beneath the surface, piranhas
Guppies is an acronym which stands for Generation X Yuppies. The combination of the two nelogistic generational terms is used to loosely identify anyone who was in their twenties during the 1990s, ," said Boston attorney Douglas Sheff, president of the Massachusetts Academy Massachusetts Academy could refer to:
The legislation follows a 1996 U.S. Department of Justice study of the nation's 75 largest counties that ranked Massachusetts among the worst states for plaintiffs. (Bureau of Justice Statistics Noun 1. Bureau of Justice Statistics - the agency in the Department of Justice that is the primary source of criminal justice statistics for federal and local policy makers BJS Bulletin, Civil Trial Cases and Verdicts in Large Counties, 1996, at 21 (1999).) While plaintiffs nationwide won at trial 52 percent of the time, in the most plaintiff-friendly Massachusetts county, plaintiffs won in less than 41 percent of the trials, according to the study. In two Massachusetts counties, Worcester and Norfolk, plaintiffs won less than 25 percent of the jury trials. They fared far better at bench trials, according to the report, with a win rate ranging from 55 percent to 64 percent across the state. Sheff attributed Massachusetts's dismal ranking, at least in part, to bias against plaintiffs and their lawyers. Plaintiffs, as well as defendants, have trouble screening out biased jurors in Massachusetts, because only the judges question prospective jurors there. Under the Massachusetts system, Sheff said, lawyers may be reluctant to submit too many voir dire questions, which may be culled out by the judge. The proposed legislation would create a two-year pilot program allowing lawyers to conduct their own voir dire in three Massachusetts counties and requiring court administrators to keep records related to the project. Under the current system, plaintiff lawyers must resort to outside and sometimes expensive measures, such as focus groups, if they want to investigate potential juror juror n. any person who actually serves on a jury. Lists of potential jurors are chosen from various sources such as registered voters, automobile registration or telephone directories. biases. Although focus groups can provide useful information, attorneys like Sheff would prefer the real thing. "It's just not fair," said Sheff. "The whole purpose of the judicial system is to have a fair and impartial jury." |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion