Choose wisely: A short primer on jury selection in employment cases

Juries decide whether an employer committed unlawful discrimination. Lawyers and their employer clients get to ask questions of potential jurors in a process called voir dire. You also receive information from the court on whether and where potential jurors are employed; their marital status; and their spouses’ employment, age, and religion. Jury selection in a discrimination case is mostly art mixed with some science.

Guidance on selection

Guidance No. 1: Look for your enemies, not your friends. Employers often ask: What's the profile of our ideal juror? Wrong question. In the limited time given for selection, it’s impossible to find your friends. But there’s time to identify your enemies—those who will vote against you and/or lead their fellow jurors to do so.

The biggest warning sign in a juror is an unstable work history with several different employers. Their life narrative is likely one of disappointment leading to anger; a strong belief that “someone is at fault, and it sure ain’t me”; and, now that the juror thinks about it, it’s the fault of Corporate America. You end up being the one and only chance this juror has to get even, and they’ll take it.