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Experts on Juries

By Leonard Post
January 04, 2006

Automatic exemptions from jury service for certain professionals have been removed from most state and federal courts over the last several years as a way to ensure that juries are drawn from more representative cross sections of communities. Courts have found that it increases the number of people available for jury service and spreads out both the educational value and the burdens of jury service, which may include time, expense and lost income.

As blanket occupational exemptions for jury duty become a relic, litigators are split on whether there is a need for specific jury instructions to keep jurors from relying on their expertise in evidentiary matters. This issue tends to be particularly troubling for medical malpractice attorneys, as the pool of potential jurors with knowledge of medical issues — doctors, nurses, physical therapists, etc. — is so large. One court system — New York's – instructs professionals to keep their expertise outside of the jury room. No other court currently singles out professional jury-deliberation conduct in jury instructions.

The issue is pressing enough that jury researchers are completing a research project that will recommend several instructions to let jurors know how they can use (and not abuse) juror expertise, rather than simply admonishing them to pretend they are blank slates.

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