(a) Voir Dire of Prospective Jurors. The Court may conduct the voir dire
examination of prospective jurors or permit the parties to do so. When the
Court conducts voir dire, the parties may submit written proposed questions to
the Court and may request additional questions in light of prospective jurors’
responses to the Court’s examination.
(b) Juror Questionnaires. Juror questionnaires shall be available for
inspection from the Clerk on the Thursday before jury selection is scheduled to
commence. The information contained in the questionnaires is to be used for
purposes of jury selection only. Only counsel, employees of counsel, and the
parties are authorized to view juror information. Absent a Court order, this
information shall not be disclosed to others and shall be destroyed after jury
selection is complete.
The attorneys and pro se parties are expected to examine the juror
questionnaires available in the Jury Section of the Clerk’s Office prior to jury
selection in order to become familiar with each potential venire person’s
background, occupation, etc. During the jury selection proceedings, the Court
will have each venire member identified by number only, thus enabling the
parties to match each potential juror with his/her background information.
(c) Jury Selection Procedure. A venire shall be drawn according to the
Court’s plan for the qualification and random selection of petit jurors. Once the
Judge or a Deputy Clerk, in the presence of all parties and their counsel, has
generally qualified the venire, a panel of prospective jurors will be identified for
each particular action. After questioning the members of the panel and
resolving all strikes for cause, the Court will ask the parties to exercise their
peremptory strikes simultaneously and in writing. Beginning with the first
qualified juror remaining on the panel, the strike list will contain a sufficient
number of prospective jurors necessary to establish a jury of a predetermined
size once the parties have had an opportunity to use all authorized peremptory
strikes. If all strikes are not used, or if any of the strikes overlap, resulting in
more qualified jurors available for service than are needed, the jury will be
composed of the previously determined number of jurors beginning with the
first juror on the list. The time necessary for the parties to produce their lists of
peremptory strikes is ten (10) minutes, unless, for good cause shown, the Court
extends that time. Once all strikes have been recorded, the parties shall be
afforded an opportunity to review the strikes of any opposing party in order to
present any objections or motions related to those strikes. Once any and all
objections or motions are resolved, the Deputy Clerk shall be asked to seat the
jury. After the Deputy Clerk has identified and seated the jury, the parties
shall be prepared to confirm that the jury seated in the jury box is the jury that
was selected.
(d) Peremptory Challenges. Each party shall be entitled to the number of
peremptory challenges authorized by 28 U.S.C. § 1870 in civil cases and by Fed.
R. Crim. P. 24 in criminal cases. Within the discretion of the Judge, additional
peremptory challenges may be allowed in any case. In civil cases where there
are multiple Plaintiffs or Defendants, requests for additional peremptory
challenges shall be filed no later than the final pretrial conference. In criminal
cases involving multiple Defendants, the Judge may allow additional challenges
and authorize the Defendants to exercise those challenges separately or jointly,
so long as they are requested at least seven (7) days in advance of jury selection.
(e) Communications with Jurors. Parties, attorneys, and the agents or
employees of parties or attorneys may not approach, interview, or communicate
with a venire member or juror before, during, or after trial, except with leave of
Court. Such leave may be granted only upon notice to opposing counsel (or pro
se opponent) and a showing of good cause. A juror must be advised at the outset
of any communication that his or her participation is voluntary. Any juror
contact permitted by the Court under this Rule is subject to the Court’s control.
