court participants and jury trials

Question 1

what are the 4 main court participants

Answer 1

1). Litigants,
2). Lawyers,
3). Judges,
4). Juries

Question 2

what are litigants

Answer 2

• Litigants are (obviously) the disputants—individuals, organizations,
  and government officials—trying to settle disagreements

Question 3

what are the 2 types of litigants

Answer 3

1). One-shotters
2). Repeat players

Question 4

what are lawyers

Answer 4

• Lawyers are people who practices or study law in the form of an
  attorney or advisor.
• They dispense of advice about legal rules and how those rules apply
  to specific issues in a dispute.
• They also advise on whether a particular dispute warrants judicial
  intervention

Question 5

what are judges

Answer 5

• They are public officials appointed to decide cases in a court of law.
• They should be impartial and not have a conflict of interest in a case
• They are administrators of a court and in non-jury cases they
  interpret the rules that govern proceedings
• They adjudicate (except in jury trials)
• In Canada judges are ex-practicing lawyers (they undergo no formal
  training)

Question 6

what are juries

Answer 6

• Juries are a body of people (typically 12) sworn to give a verdict in a
  legal case on the basis of evidence presented to them.
• Juries are used in Common Law countries (those using the Adversarial
  system)
• In Canada juries are used in criminal trials and sometimes civil trials
• In Canada those accused of crimes where the punishment is 5 years+
  have the right to request a trial by jury

Question 7

who eligible for jury duty

Answer 7

“In general, all Canadian citizens who are between 18 and 65 (or 69) years of
age, who have not been convicted of an indictable [SERIOUS] offence (or
have received a pardon for an indictable offence) and who are free from any
mental or physical disability that might impede their performance as a juror,
are considered qualified to serve on a jury.”

Question 8

what professions are exempted from jury duty

Answer 8

lawyers, judges, law students, police
officers, doctors, coroners, dentists, vets and members of the armed forces
(among others)

Question 9

what are the two processes of jury selection

Answer 9

1). Computerized random selectors are applied to voter registration lists and
provincial lists of Medicare beneficiaries (among others).
2). The initial list of people from 1). undergoes further scrutiny in court…

Some argue that once a jury has been selected within a court, the case has
already been decided (Davies & Emshwiller, 2006) because—based on
demographic/personal characteristics—it is possible to select a jury for a
case that is likely to be sympathetic or unsympathetic to one side…

Question 10

why are jurors questioned in court before a case proceeds

Answer 10

1). Questioning can instigate a positive relationship with a prospective
juror that can increase the chances of them siding with a lawyer (and
their case)
2). Questioning (again) can ferret out and then result in the rejection of
potentially biased jurors or detect potentially advantageous bias within
them, with lawyers then trying to retain them

Question 11

what is scientific jury selection

Answer 11

It is where lawyers, based on the advice of social scientists, use
certain strategies to identify jurors likely to be sympathetic to their
case

Question 12

where critiques of jury selection

Answer 12

1). It attempts to rig the jury in one’s favour thereby
potentially undermining the adversarial system of
justice
2). It is very expensive so it offers a significant
advantage to rich defendants

Question 13

what are concerns about jury trials

Answer 13

1. bias
2. selection isn’t random enough
3. Some critics believe randomly selected juries are typically not smart
   enough to assess the evidence or remain impartial