JuryStar User Manual - Litigator Technology
Contents
1. 11 states that his prior jury experience involved giving a widow millions of dollars because the corporate defendant in that case undoubtedly had insurance he is good for you If you represent the corporation in that case Juror 11 is bad for you So Using the above example with the Prior Jury Experience topic active tap Juror 11 s cell box which will become highlighted If you represent the fishermen slide the slider toward the right to a positive number probably 5 and tap the Rate Boxes button You will see that Juror 11 s J 0 is now J 5 If you represent the corporation you would give that juror a negative rating perhaps 5 Continue with this topic until you have discussed it with everyone else who raised their hand Thus you will have covered an important issue with the entire group of potential jurors and identified and marked potential problem jurors without pausing to scribble on Post its The flow of the conversation can continue almost completely uninterrupted If you wish to make a brief note of any juror s specific answer which is what litigators currently have to do anyway highlight that juror s cell box by tapping it then tap Notes That juror s individual text box will appear In the toxic waste example above you could enter a few words that will remind you later of Juror 11 s prior jury experience Ex prior j insurance Tip when typing anything our tendency is to use prop2. DAY J URY SELECTION OVERVIEW Trial day in most jurisdictions starts with dozens of potential jurors being led into the courtroom seated in the courtroom gallery and given some preliminary instructions Then a small number of potential jurors are randomly picked from the courtroom gallery and seated in and around the jury box The lawyers take turns questioning that smaller group in and around the jury box then strike deselect potential jurors from that group If enough potential jurors get deselected additional potential jurors are taken from the courtroom gallery and used to repopulate the jury box The lawyers continue asking questions of the potential jurors in and around the jury box who continue to be deselected until the lawyers quit striking them The small group left in and around the jury box will comprise the jury and alternates SEATING THE JURORS Tap Enter Cells at the bottom of your screen A grid of the jurors numbers will appear in the lower right of your screen The grid at the top of your screen represents the jury box and an additional group row of seats in front of or around the jury box The judge will call certain potential jurors from the large group in the courtroom gallery and seat them in and around the jury box As the judge calls the name and number of each juror to take his her place in or around the jury box tap that juror s number box on the lower right side of your screen The box around that numb
3. JuryStar User Manual A NEW ERA The tablet PC is the latest innovation in this amazing Era of Technology However as revolutionary as the tablet may be litigators must keep in mind that it is but a tool to help them achieve their greater goals JuryStar has the capability to completely replace every document and paper resource you would otherwise take to the podium for jury selection As exciting as that capability may be your ultimate goal is to identify helpful and harmful jurors while building rapport with all of them Whether you use an iPad or pen and paper for jury selection do not feel that you have to document every scrap of information discussed with potential jurors especially if doing so disrupts the flow of dialogue or creates long awkward pauses Document what you can and remember what you must Similarly do not feel that you must utilize a JuryStar feature just because it is available You are the most important factor in the case and everything else including this app should be utilized to the extent that it helps you achieve your goals for voir dire Tip you can quickly become familiar with JuryStar by using it when observing voir dire conducted by other attorneys PURPOSE OF VOIR DIRE You first need to identify the topics you wish to explore with the jury A potential juror s prior jury service arrest history management experience familiarity with the trucking industry etc could all be relevant topics that have so
4. Topic are visible in the lower right of your screen The seating grid at the top of the screen corresponds to the jurors positions in the jury box In middle area of your screen there are three buttons on the left a button on the right anda slider in between them Their functions will be explained shortly If your opponent goes first If your opponent gets to question the jurors first you can record significant answers in each individual juror s text box Ex if your opponent elicits relevant information from Juror 21 you tap on Juror 21 s cell box The cell box will become highlighted indicating that it has been selected Then tap the Notes button which is one of the three buttons in the middle of your screen Juror 21 s individual text box will appear on your screen into which you can enter whatever information you find significant to your position When finished entering the information tap Done to return to the Voir Dire screen Your turn Tap the Topic with which you wish to begin The questions associated with that Topic will appear on the right Introduce yourself and your client to the potential jurors Provide some contextual background if it will facilitate the process and if the judge allows it Ask the first question which will probably be addressed to the group Ex Who here has been on a jury before A number of hands may go up In the seating grid tap on every juror who answers aff
5. bout selection You will never be able to tell the judge On behalf of my client select Juror 26 to be on the jury You can only deselect potential jurors the idea being that if both sides deselect the potentially biased jurors the case will be evaluated by the fairest group of people Accordingly one of the most important functions of jury selection is to identify the people that you do not want on your jury so that you may intelligently exercise your peremptory strikes PRETRIAL PREPARATION GETTING STARTED WITH J URYSTAR Tap the JuryStar icon on your iPad main screen The initial JuryStar screen will appear Tap the Trials icon on the bottom left of your screen A window displaying Saved Trials will appear on the lower right of your screen Tap Create New Trial A textbox will appear asking you to Enter name for new trial Tap in the textbox the iPad keyboard will appear Enter the name of your trial Jackson v Big Industry State v Burke etc Select the number of seats per row in the jury box your potential jurors will occupy during voir dire 6 7 or 8 If the rows in your jury box have differing numbers of seats ex back row has eight seats while the front row has six seats select the greater number Tap Done Your Trial File will now appear in the Saved Trials window DRAFTING VOIR DIRE QUESTIONS You can prepare your lines of questioning in numerous ways Generally you can 1 D
6. eir cell box then tap Court The deselected juror will be taken from the seating grid and will appear underneath the Court button The deselected jurors cell boxes will remain visible underneath their respective buttons which will help you keep track of how many remaining strikes you and your opponent have CONTINUING VOIR DIRE After enough potential jurors are deselected additional jurors will likely be needed to repopulate the jury box Tap the Enter Cells button on the bottom of your screen As the judge calls additional jurors out of the gallery and seats them in and around the jury box repeat the juror seating process described above If a juror that survived the first round of deselection needs to change seats in the jury box to more easily accommodate the additional jurors go to the Voir Dire screen Tap the surviving juror s cell box in the seating grid highlighting it Tap the Move Cell button Tap the spot in the seating grid that corresponds to the surviving juror s new seating position The juror s cell box will appear in that corresponding position If the additional jurors need additional questioning you can conduct voir dire using the same procedures as described above Eventually you will have your jury POST TRIAL You can easily save your voir dire questions in JuryStar as reference materials for future trials If you choose not to delete the trial file you created you can later g
7. er sentence structure punctuation etc Resist this urge when using JuryStar Just as you would perhaps jot J ins on a Post it note to memorialize Juror 1 1 s response so too type J ins or some other BRIEF note in the text box to minimize the disruptions in the flow of dialogue Continue with your other Topics Assess jurors answers for indications that they would tend to favor one side or the other and score them accordingly In the final analysis whether you score a juror s response as a 3 or 4 matters less than your ability to simply assign a negative value to the potential jurors who tend to favor your opponent Tip if you can keep your iPad connected to the Internet you can receive feedback emails from your team during voir dire You absolutely must test out this capability before trial to ensure that your courtroom s wireless capabilities are compatible and sufficient At the end of voir dire all potential jurors will have several ratings which means several positive and or negative numbers If you have done your best to identify the answers that indicate a tendency to side with your opponent you will easily identify the jurors with the greatest number of individual negative ratings Again in this endeavor a 5 does not necessarily balance out a 5 You cannot sum the values and arrive at a single score that tells you definitively whether or not you want that person on your jury Identify the jurors with the greater
8. er will turn red indicating that it has been selected Ex if the judge starts with Juror 25 you tap box 25 Box 25 will turn red indicating that it has been selected Wherever Juror 25 gets seated in the actual jury box you tap the corresponding area on the seating grid at the top of the screen Juror 25 s number box will now appear in that corresponding area on the seating grid Juror 25 s last name will appear in the seating grid as well As the judge seats the jurors tap each juror s number box then tap the spot in the seating grid that corresponds to the actual juror s seat in the actual jury box Continue until the judge fills the jury box and surrounding areas if any Tip if you find yourself in a jurisdiction where the potential jurors are not questioned while seated in the jury box as described above you can ask your preloaded questions from the Voir Dire screen and then record the answers by tapping the Enter Cells button and using the Enter Demographic Info to access all 144 jurors text boxes CONDUCTING VOIR DIRE Tap the Voir Dire button on the bottom of your screen It is the second button from the right The Voir Dire screen will appear On it you will see Your Topics on the lower left of your screen Tap the Topic you wish to start off with which will cause the blue and white arrow icon to appear The icon indicates which Topic is active The questions associated with the active
9. estions To add another question tap the Add button again and repeat the above instructions Continue adding questions to that line of questioning until you feel that particular Topic is covered If you wish to rearrange the order of your questions tap the Edit Table button directly above the Questions heading On the right side of each individual question s field a small box shaped icon comprised of three short horizontal bars will appear By touching that icon you can drag and drop that text box to a different spot in your order of questions The red and white icon on the left side of each question s field can be used to delete the question by tapping that icon and then tapping the Delete button that appears next Additional topics are created by tapping the Add button just above the Topics title and following the instructions above If you wish to rearrange the order of your topics tap the Edit Table button directly above the Topics heading Again on the right side of each topic s field the small box shaped icon comprised of three short horizontal bars will appear By touching that icon you can drag and drop that topic s text box to a different spot in your order of Topics The red and white icon on the left side of the field can be used to delete the entire Topic by tapping it and then tapping the Delete button that appears next Continue creating and reordering your topics and questions unt
10. il you are prepared for voir dire Tip for some topics a Topic title with no supporting questions will suffice For example if you simply want to know if any of your jurors went to graduate school you can create a topic titled Graduate School and forego entering any specific questions You can also create topics that pertain to your personal impressions of jurors For example if you want to note a juror s body language attentiveness likability etc you could name such a topic and assign it a symbol The symbol can be a letter number keyboard symbol exclamation point or anything memorable Again no questions are necessary for such topics Keep such personal impression topics grouped together at either the top or bottom of the Topics column During voir dire you can easily document your personal impressions of jurors interested disinterested personable not personable etc at any point by tapping into that topic and rating them ratings explained below If you do be sure to tap back into the Topic you were discussing to prevent crossing up your juror ratings Tip some litigators like to ask jurors to give a single word answer to a question then explain their single word i e What one word would describe your opinion of the justice system You could type such a question either 1 as a separate Topic or 2 in the questions field of an existing related Topic You could then record significant responses in the jurors Note
11. irmatively Each corresponding spot on the seating grid will become highlighted Tip when asking a group question ask the jurors to keep their hands raised for you Once you have their cell box highlighted then thank them and let them put their hands down Tap the Rate Boxes button which is the large button on the right side of your screen You will see that the symbol associated with that line of questioning now appears in each highlighted juror s cell box The number zero will initially appear next to the symbol Ex if you assigned the letter J to the Prior Jury Service topic you will see J 0 in every jurors cell box that you highlighted Thus you simultaneously mark every juror with a connection to that particular topic Now a word of explanation about the slider in the middle of your screen and how it can help you during voir dire No litigator ever needs to write down every word that every juror utters in voir dire You simply need to 1 identify the jurors who would be particularly receptive or opposed to your position and 2 make a note of significant responses So when you ask questions about any topic the goal is to assess jurors answers for indications that they would tend to favor either your position or your opponent s position Let s use the topic of Prior Jury Experience as an example If you represent a group of fishermen suing a big company for dumping toxic waste off the Oregon coastline and Juror
12. me bearing on your particular trial The questions that pertain to a single topic are grouped together into a sub set called a line of questioning for that topic For example the topic Prior Jury Service could have a line of questioning comprised of the following set of questions 1 Who here has served on a jury before 2 Was it a civil or criminal case 3 Did you arrive at a verdict 4 What is one word that describes your experience as a juror 5 Explain that for me please In this fashion you construct sets of questions for each topic Some topics may have a few questions at most Some topics may require several questions Some topics such as Prior Jury Service and Law Enforcement Background might be important to explore in every trial Some topics might be highly case specific For example if you were litigating a wrongful termination lawsuit in which the defendant was a local businessman you would want to cover a general Work History topic with potential jurors perhaps followed by a more specific Business Lawsuit topic with a line of questioning such as Has anyone ever been involved in a lawsuit related to their employment What was the lawsuit about Were you a witness or a party to the lawsuit Did you have to be deposed Did you have to pay anything What are your feelings about that experience Finally contrary to popular belief jury selection is not a
13. number of negative scores and let that be your primary guide for deselection STRIKING JURORS JuryStar was designed to facilitate the deselection process allowing litigators to quickly identify potential jurors with multiple negative ratings So when the questioning concludes and the deselection process begins keep the Voir Dire screen displayed From this single screen you can view the symbols associated with all topics view all jurors ratings for those topics and access each juror s notes with a touch of the Notes button After reviewing your notes and identifying who you wish to deselect tap the Strike Jurors button on the bottom of your screen It is the button on the far right You will see the seating grid at the top of your screen and three buttons in the lower half of your screen The buttons are labeled Peremptory Us Peremptory Them and Court Highlight the potential juror you wish to deselect by tapping their cell box Then tap Peremptory Us The deselected juror s cell box is removed from the seating grid and appears underneath the Peremptory Us button Once you learn who your opponent has deselected highlight that deselected juror and then tap Peremptory Them The deselected juror will be taken from the seating grid and will appear 8 underneath the Peremptory Them button If any juror is stricken by the judge for cause highlight that juror by tapping on th
14. o into it and cut copy paste the questions into a new trial file You can also copy the questions from JuryStar and paste them into the iPad Notes program where they can be saved Finally you can copy paste the questions into your iPad email service and send them to the computer where you keep your questions on file
15. raft them on your iPad using JuryStar 2 Draft them on your iPad using the Notes application that comes standard on iPads then cut copy paste them into JuryStar 3 Draft them on your laptop or desktop email them to your iPad in the body of the email seems to work best then cut copy paste them into JuryStar For all methods once you are ready to start loading the questions into JuryStar Step 1 Name the Topic Tap the Load Questions button at the bottom of your screen It is the second button from the left A view will appear that has Topics on the lower left of your screen and Questions on the lower right of your screen Tap the Add button just above the Topics heading A window titled Add Topic will appear There are two text fields in that window One text field is titled Symbol The other text field is titled Title Tap in the text field next to Title The iPad keyboard will appear Type in a topic you wish to discuss with potential jurors in voir dire Ex type Prior Jury Service Law Enforcement Perceptions Attitude about big corporations etc When finished with the title tap in the text field next to Symbol Chose a letter number or symbol to associate with that particular Topic Ex for Prior Jury Service you could select a capital J For Law Enforcement you might choose a capital L After you both a title and symbol associated with a line of q
16. s field explained further below Tip some Topics are designed to make a point or to prepare the jurors for your theory of the case You need not plan on assigning a value to every juror you dialogue with on these topics Only a few extreme jurors will answer such topics in ways that merit your attention and typically you and your opponent would remember those jurors quite easily during the deselection phase LOADING JUROR DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION Most jurisdictions provide attorneys some basic juror demographic information usually via pretrial questionnaires If you have the time and the inclination you can preload into JuryStar whatever juror information you wish If possible you should certainly enter the juror s last name in the cell box that has their juror number Tap Enter Cells at the bottom of your screen It is the middle button A field with boxes numbered from 1 144 will appear in the lower left of your screen If you tap box 1 and then tap the Enter Demographic Info button juror 1 s individual information box appears In this field you can enter juror 1 s name and whatever demographic information you think is important to your case including area of residence spousal information employer and criminal histories if you have time to run them This box will be available to you during voir dire so that you can easily add additional information in the Notes text field during voir dire TRIAL
17. uestioning tap Done You will see that the topic and its symbol are now in the Topics menu on the lower left of your screen Step 2 Create questions for that Topic Tap the particular topic to which you wish to add questions A blue and white icon will appear on the right side of that particular topic indicating that questions can now be added to it To add specific questions to the selected topic tap the Add button just above the Questions heading which is on the lower right side of your screen A large text field will appear Tap within that text field causing the iPad keyboard to appear At this point you can 1 type one or more questions in the text field or 2 paste previously typed questions copied from either your notes or an email Questions typed in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS are easier to read for most lawyers standing at the podium Tip even though the text field is designed to handle large amounts of text we recommend that you start out by entering only one question in each text field Once you become more familiar with JuryStar you can expand on the number of questions per field if you choose Once you have your question s in that text box tap the Done button under the text box You will see that the question you typed is now visible in the Questions field on your screen If you typed or pasted more than two questions in a single text box you can scroll down within the question field to see the additional qu
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