A question defense lawyers always should ask in voir dire

In voir dire, a defense lawyer always should ask the venire whether it is more important to them as potential jury members to follow their personal ethics or to follow the law. Sometimes lawyers ask it this way: Is it more important to follow the spirit of the law or the letter of the law? An attorney can get a sense of the answer’s importance by asking whether the potential juror feels very strongly, strongly or neutral about his or her answer. These types of questions flush out those potential jurors who will engage in juror nullification, deciding a case based on their predilections rather than on the evidence and the jury instructions. This post comes with a caveat: A defense lawyer in an employment case never will be able to weed out all jurors who will follow their personal ethics. There are too many. But the defense can weed out the most dangerous.