Definition
PANEL has two principal legal meanings, both rooted in the same historical origin but now used in distinct contexts.
1. Jury panel. The list of persons summoned to appear for jury service at a given court term or for a specific trial. The term encompasses both the written return filed by the sheriff (or, in modern practice, the court clerk or jury administrator) identifying those summoned, and the body of those persons themselves. From this pool, individual jurors are selected through voir dire to serve on the petit jury for a particular case. The word captures the document, the group, and — by extension — any formal proceeding before a selected body of decision-makers.
2. Adjudicatory or deliberative panel. A group of persons convened to evaluate, decide, or advise on matters brought before them. This meaning has expanded well beyond jury practice into administrative law (hearing panels), appellate courts (a three-judge panel of a circuit court), military justice (the court-martial panel that functions as the trier of fact), professional licensing boards, arbitration tribunals, and medical malpractice screening panels. In each context, the panel is the constituted body — not any single member — that bears collective responsibility for the outcome.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A group of people gathered to judge, interview, or discuss, as on a television or radio broadcast; also a rectangular section of a surface or wall.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): A piece of parchment or a schedule containing the names of persons summoned as jurors by the sheriff; hence, more generally, the whole jury. Also a sunken compartment with raised margins in ceilings or wainscotings.
The common and legal meanings here are unusually close — Webster's 1913 tracks the legal definition almost exactly because the legal usage was already embedded in ordinary language by the nineteenth century. The gap worth noting is directional: in everyday modern English, "panel" most readily evokes a discussion group or broadcast format, draining the word of its technical procedural content. A researcher encountering "panel" in a legal source should not assume the looser contemporary sense; the procedural meaning — a formally constituted body with defined authority to act — carries obligations and consequences that a television discussion panel does not.
Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES
Jury panel (venire). The full list of prospective jurors returned in response to a venire facias or its modern equivalent. The panel is not yet the jury; it is the reservoir from which the jury is drawn.
Special panel. A supplemental list of jurors summoned after the regular panel has been exhausted or found insufficient, typically by special venire. Anderson's Dictionary of Law notes this usage explicitly.
Grand jury panel. The body of persons constituted to sit as a grand jury, distinct from the petit jury panel.
Appellate panel. A subset of judges from a multi-member court assigned to hear a particular appeal. Standard usage in federal circuit courts, where a three-judge panel ordinarily decides cases, with en banc review available before the full court.
Court-martial panel. In military justice, the members (officers, and in some proceedings, enlisted personnel) who serve as the trier of fact at a special or general court-martial. Functionally analogous to a jury but selected by the convening authority rather than by random draw.
Administrative or screening panel. A body established by statute or regulation to evaluate claims before or instead of litigation — most prominently, medical malpractice screening panels created by state tort reform legislation to filter claims prior to trial.
Why It Matters in Research
The word's procedural weight shifts depending on the era and the context. In pre-twentieth-century sources, "panel" almost invariably refers to the jury list and the physical document (originally a strip of parchment) returned by the sheriff. Researchers working in early American or English sources should understand that challenges to the panel — motions attacking the composition or regularity of the venire itself — are distinct from challenges to individual jurors for cause or peremptory challenge. Confusing a challenge to the array (the panel) with a challenge to the poll (an individual juror) is a recurring research error when reading older procedural materials.
In modern federal practice, "panel" is the default term for the three-judge appellate grouping. Determining whether a panel decision has precedential force, whether it conflicts with another panel's ruling, and whether en banc review was sought are all threshold questions in circuit court research that hinge on understanding the panel structure.
In military law, the panel selection process is a known point of constitutional litigation. Unlike civilian jury selection, the convening authority appoints panel members, and challenges to that process have generated a distinct body of case law separate from civilian jury-selection doctrine.
In health law and administrative law research, "screening panel" or "review panel" carries its own statutory framework in nearly every state that has enacted medical malpractice reform. These panels vary enormously — some issue binding determinations, others produce admissible but rebuttable findings, and others generate no admissible evidence at all. The label "panel" alone does not tell a researcher which regime applies.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (1st and 2nd editions) define panel consistently: the roll or slip of parchment returned by the sheriff in response to a venire facias, containing the names of persons summoned as jurors. Both editions extend the term to the body of persons themselves. The 2nd edition cites Illinois and California authority, confirming that the definition was understood uniformly in American practice by the late nineteenth century.
Anderson's Dictionary of Law adds useful texture: the word's physical origin in a "little pane, or oblong piece of parchment" annexed to the writ of venire, and the explicit recognition of the special panel drawn after exhaustion of the regular panel. Anderson also uses "schedule" interchangeably with "panel," reflecting the document-as-body conflation that was standard in the period.
What the historical dictionaries do not capture is the explosion of non-jury uses of the term across the twentieth century — appellate panels, administrative panels, arbitration panels, and medical malpractice screening panels are all post-1900 developments unaddressed by these sources. Researchers should treat the historical definitions as complete for jury-practice purposes and incomplete for any modern institutional context.
Jurisdictional Note
Jury panel procedures — summoning, excusal, supplementation by special venire — are governed by state statute and local court rule, producing meaningful procedural variation. Medical malpractice screening panels are creatures of state tort reform law and differ in composition, authority, and evidentiary effect from state to state. In federal courts, panel composition and en banc procedures are governed by each circuit's local rules alongside the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Courts-Martial — Types (Summary, Special, General), Convening Authority, and Panel Selection (The Law Mind Military, Veterans & Admiralty Law Encyclopedia)
Medical Malpractice Reform — Caps, Screening Panels, and Alternative Dispute Resolution (The Law Mind Health Law & Bioethics Encyclopedia)