Attorney-Conducted Voir Dire in New Jersey – the Essential

On July 12th, the Chief Justice signed an order authorizing a pilot program to explore attorney-conducted voir dire in criminal matters starting in September in Bergen, Camden and Middlesex Counties. The order followed the recommendation of a Judicial Conference Committee that extensively studied the issue.

Join the New Jersey Judiciary and the NJSBA as we partner for a half-day training on the essential elements of Attorney-Conducted Voir Dire (ACVD). The training will be comprised of two parts.

Part 1
A demonstration of ACVD with a judge, prosecutor, and defense attorney walking through the steps of the program. Video clips will be shown to illustrate key proceedings. Part 1 will also include a demonstration of how case-specific written questionnaires will be customized by the judge and attorneys before jury selection, and how juror responses will be received and reviewed before oral voir dire, including to identify hardships, for-cause challenges, and issues to address at sidebar.

Part 2
A moderated discussion led by Administrative Director Glenn A. Grant, with input from judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys and recognized experts as to their perspectives on each stage of the ACVD process, including but not limited to the following:

• Informal discussion between judge and attorneys (and attorneys and clients) regarding the elements of the ACVD model and willingness to participate;


• Formal hearing with the judge, attorneys, and defendant on the record memorializing consent to participate and executing the consent and waiver form;


• Planning conference to cover the customization of the written questionnaire and the specifics of voir dire -- with reinforcement of the latitude afforded attorneys to question jurors within broad and clear guardrails;


• Receipt and use of the Rule 1:8-5 petit jury list with juror demographic information;


• Provision to judge and attorneys of the spreadsheet with juror responses to the case-specific questionnaire;


• Pre-voir dire hardships and for-cause challenges;


• Judicial introduction and start of oral voir dire;


• Attorney questioning of jurors -- illustrating a variety of models;


• Challenges for cause (and late-raised hardships) handled immediately, including for disruptive jurors;


• Replacement of jurors dismissed for cause during voir dire;


• Challenges for cause handled at the end of questioning;


• Attorney exercise of peremptories, with replacements inserted at random; and


• Empanelment of jury and dismissal of questioned and not-reached jurors.