Challenges to Achieving Fairness in Civil Jury Selection

Abstract

This paper identifies multiple challenges that courts face to achieving fairness in the selection of juries in civil cases. Achieving representative cross-sections of the community in jury venires, and ensuring that our civil juries reflect the community as well, are essential components contributing to the fairness and legitimacy of our civil justice system. Although legal rules and practices attempt to maximize fair and representative juries, the courts encounter substantial difficulty in achieving this important goal. Problems arise in summoning citizens for jury service, in questioning them during voir dire, and in exercising peremptory and for-cause challenges. Systematic empirical research on representativeness and new psychological studies on implicit and unconscious bias raise questions about the efficacy of current jury selection procedures. This paper identifies these problems and the challenges they present for producing representative and fair juries.

Keywords: Courts, fairness, jury, jury selection, civil cases, representative cross-sections, jury venires, civil juries, civil justice system, voir dire, implicit bias, unconscious bias, peremptory challenges