JURY SELECTION

There are important matters, and then there is DV in Miami (dramatic drumroll please). They're back baby (although you can get into PC trouble by calling some segments of society who aren't less than a year old "baby") and they have some very serious rules for Jury selection. They aren't picking jurors in Fed court until July (those pikers) but you can stroll down the street in your trial suit and shinned shoes and pick six at the Lawson Courthouse for the unfortunate domestic travails of Mr and Ms, or Ms and Ms, or Mr and Mr Miami (we've covered all the permutations right? It's 2! (2x1+1) ). 

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE DIVISION

PROCEDURES FOR JUROR PREQUALIFICATION VIA ZOOM

     Beginning Thursday, March 11, 2021 and every THURSDAY thereafter, an assigned Domestic Violence Division Judge will cover juror prequalification via Zoom for misdemeanor trials scheduled the following Monday. (Sound familiar? They used to do this in the Keys between Stone Crabs, Margaritas and Key Lime Pie). 

  Prequalification will be for language and scheduling conflicts only.

 (Q: Do you speak English? A: Que? 
Q: Do you have any scheduling conflicts for Monday? 
A: We have a cruise scheduled and then are planning to take the rest of the month off to recover from Covid19). 

    Jurors will appear via Zoom in 2 groups:  one group of 25 at 2:15 PM and a second group of 25 at 3:15 PM. (A Bailiff in a black coat and bow tie will be available. Shake his or her hand and slip them something and you can get a better seat for the 3:15 show. Think Joes, but no big bill at the end and no bib). 

 Jury Pool will provide the 2 panels of 25 (50 total) to the DV Division on Tuesday mornings the week before the scheduled Monday trial.  The information provided by jury pool will include juror contact information and the juror questionnaires. (So the jurors will be questioned solely by a judge, relying  on the skills they honed picking hundreds of juries in their storied legal career when they tried every case and only asked for a continuance once.)

 N Notification of the juror prequalification via Zoom will be sent out to the jurors by Jury Pool. (It's like winning Lotto and finding out the rest of New Jersey also had the same numbers.)  Additionally, the assigned DV Judge’s staff will send out an email to the jurors which includes Zoom information, date, time and additional instructions.  The State Attorney’s Office, the Office of the Public Defender and any private attorneys set for trial on Monday will also be invited to the Thursday juror prequalification session.  Appearance by the defendants is welcome but not required. (Jurors questioned outside the presence of the defendant. Oh we do not see any problems with this-  and speaking of good ideas maybe we could do it on one of those Zeppelins. We hear the Hindenburg is well apportioned. ). 

 In addition to the Thursday juror prequalification sessions, the covering Judge’s staff will also attempt to reach out to the jurors via phone and host a juror Zoom training session on Wednesdays for those who need assistance with Zoom prior to the Thursday juror prequalification sessions.   (Oh yes. We want JAs speaking privately with jurors. They won't take our calls to schedule cases so it is not like they are busy. And their people skills? Puhleeeze. But wait! It doesn't say JA's- it says "Judge's staff" So that includes the Bailiff and maybe Rick or Maria, the cleaning personnel at night: "So then when you log on, the buttons at the bottom are for your video and your microphone. Potential Juror: "Thanks so much, you're great at this. Do you work for the Court's technical division? No- I clean up at night and am just pitching in.").  

 Once juror prequalification is completed on Thursday afternoon, the Judge’s staff will provide a list to jury pool of: (a) jurors who failed to appear on Thursday; and (b) jurors who do not qualify due to language and jurors struck for cause due to scheduling conflicts (and Jurors burning up with fever from Covid19). Jury Pool will then remove these jurors from the 2 panels and provide a panel of 27 randomly assigned jurors to report on Monday from those remaining. Jury pool will send this list of 27 jurors to the trial judge as soon as possible so it may be distributed to the attorneys along with the questionnaires. (Define "soon as possible". In our world "soon as possible"  can mean like corrections responding to an order to release a defendant, meaning within a week or two.)

Jurors (27) will be instructed to report for in person jury selection on the following Monday at 9:30 AM.  (Jurors who do not believe in masks and hate Dr. Fauci are automatically acceptable to the prosecution). The remaining jurors form the 2 panels will remain on standby to report on Tuesday morning as needed. 

This is post 4,279 (really).  How do we do it, you ask? By this time we know if we are struggling with ideas that turn into superb content we  just wait,  confident that one of our  black-robbed friends will issue some order of interest and then we are off to the races. (And in an emergency there is always Broweird). Today it was DV, tomorrow it will be....probate?