Changes jury selection rules in civil trials

The Trial Jury Selection and Management Act, among other things, requires a trial judge to examine the prospective jurors in civil jury trials. The act gives the counsel for each party, after this initial examination, the right to examine any of the prospective jurors, as specified, in order to enable counsel to intelligently exercise both peremptory challenges and challenges for cause. The act prohibits a court from arbitrarily or unreasonably refusing to submit a reasonable written questionnaire to the jury if requested by counsel and states that the parties should be provided reasonable time to evaluate the responses to the questionnaire, if utilized, before oral questioning commences. The act states that the trial judge should consider, among other criteria, any unique or complex elements in the case when exercising his or her discretion as to the form and subject matter of voir dire questions.

This bill would require that the parties be provided reasonable time to evaluate the responses to a questionnaire, if utilized, before oral questioning commences. The bill would authorize the parties to submit questions to the trial judge before he or she conducts voir dire and authorize the judge to include these questions if he or she deems them proper. The bill would modify the scope of questioning allowed by the parties, require a trial judge to consider specific factors in conducting voir dire, and prohibit the judge from establishing an inflexible time limit policy for voir dire. The bill would also require a judge in civil trials to, at the earliest practical time, provide the parties with both the alphabetical list and the list of prospective jurors in the order in which they will be called.