Why Jury Selection in NY is Like Picking Teams in the Schoolyard-Medical Malpractice Lawyer Explains

http://www.oginski-law.com Jury selection in an accident case, a medical malpractice case or a wrongful death case in the state of New York is actually a misnomer. Lawyers do not actually "pick" jurors. Far from it. Jurors actually select themselves. To be more precise, we juries are selected based upon the "de-selection" process. Here is what I mean: Each lawyer is given three chances to remove jurors that they feel are not favorable for them. They can do this for any reason whatsoever. This is known as "peremptory challenges." When each lawyer has exhausted their three challenges, whoever is left, remains on the jury. Most people believe that "picking a jury" means that we identify jurors that we like and after bickering with our adversary, we either agree to have them sit as a juror or excuse them. Unfortunately, this is not how the jury selection system works in New York. In addition, there is something called "challenges for cause," which means that if there is a legal reason why a particular person should not sit as a juror on a case, your attorney has the opportunity to ask the supervising judge to excuse that person from jury duty. If the court agrees, that person will be excused. If the judge does not agree, and the lawyers have used up all of their challenges to excuse people, then that person will be on the jury. Watch the video to learn more about why jury selection is a lot like picking sides in the schoolyard. To learn even more about how negligence, accident and medical malpractice cases work in NY, I urge you to explore my educational website http://www.oginski-law.com. If you have legal questions pick up the phone and call me at 516-487-8207, or send me an email: [email protected]. I can answer your questions; that's what I do every day and I welcome your call. The Law Office of Gerald Oginski, LLC 25 Great Neck Rd., Suite 4 Great Neck NY 11021 516-487-8207 [email protected]