Page 50 - Anatomy of a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit

SVMIC Anatomy of a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit

jury consultants are utilized, but having an experienced

defense attorney is invaluable in selecting the right jurors.
Equally important is input from the defendant physician who is

familiar with the people in his or her community. Therefore, he

or she should take an active role in the voir dire process by
providing information to his or her defense attorney.

After the first round of questions, jurors can be challenged by

either party for cause. The judge will make a ruling as whether
cause exists. If cause does exist, the juror will be excused, and

a new person will take that place in the jury box. However, if

the judge determines that cause does not exist, either party
may still exclude the juror by using a peremptory challenge.

Each side has a limited number of peremptory challenges

whereby jurors can be excused from service without a specific
reason having to be given, so long as it is not based upon

discriminatory reasons. The number of peremptory challenges
allowed to each party can vary from court-to-court. Because

they are limited, each party must be mindful not to exhaust
these without cause challenges too early.

The process of questioning the jurors, submitting challenges,

and excusing jurors continues round after round until either

both parties are satisfied with the jurors ‘in the box’ or they run
out of challenges. In addition to seating the specified number

of jurors, courts in malpractice cases also seat additional jurors
to serve as alternates in the event a member of the jury

becomes ill or unavailable. Generally, an alternate only takes

part in the decision-making if he or she replaces a member of
the jury.

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