Law students, members of the public, and interested attorneys: if you can make it to downtown Providence tomorrow morning (January 23, 2018) at 9:30 a.m., and you want to see something that is the rough equivalent of a blue unicorn, head over to the federal courthouse to watch jury selection for a federal civil trial. One of the great things about the state and federal court systems is that they’re open to the public. Anyone can literally walk off the street, go through security, and sit down in a courtroom gallery to watch the court system in action. Tomorrow is a great opportunity to exercise that right and watch a voir dire.
The federal constitution guarantees criminal and civil litigants a right to an impartial jury. One of the primary procedural tools to select an impartial jury is the so-called “voir dire” process. “Voir dire” means literally to “speak the truth,” and in the legal vernacular it’s usually understood to mean the examination of potential jurors to determine whether they can be impartial and suitable to serve on a jury that will decide the disputes at issue in the trial. For example, if Apple and Samsung sue each other, the CEO of Apple probably shouldn’t sit on the jury. There are few hard and fast rules on the mechanics of jury selection, and judges have ample discretion as long as the process results in an impartial jury. Some judges allow attorneys to ask questions directly to potential jurors, while other judges require attorneys to submit questions that will then be asked by the judge.
Federal civil trials are rare in the District of Rhode Island. In past years, the District has averaged about five civil trials a year, and some of those are bench trials, meaning the judge presides over them without a jury. If you’ve visited all five Great Lakes of the United States, or counted the number of fingers on your right hand, you’ve seen more bodies of water and/or digits than there are annual civil jury trial trials in the District of Rhode Island.
Tomorrow, on Tuesday, January 23, 2018, Chief Judge Smith will conduct jury selection in Courthouse Stadium 3 at 9:30 a.m. (that’s my nomenclature – it’s formally known as Courtroom 3, on the second floor of the main federal courthouse, located at One Exchange Terrace, on Kennedy Plaza in downtown Providence – here’s a picture of the courthouse from the Court’s website). The courthouse will be open regardless of the status of the federal government shutdown.
According to publicly-available court documents, the matter before the Court is Visual Creations Inc. v. IDL Worldwide, Inc., Docket Number 17-cv-405. The parties had a business arrangement for point displays used in retail, and the primary dispute at the trial will be whether the parties agreed to arbitrate their dispute. The Federal Arbitration Act gives rise to a right to a jury trial on whether a party has agreed to submit to arbitration. In other words, the jury trial in Visual Creations Inc. v. IDL Worldwide, Inc. will be about whether the parties should have a jury trial.
Will Chief Judge Smith allow the attorneys to address the jurors directly? What sort of instructions will Chief Judge Smith give to the jurors? What kinds of jurors will the attorneys look for? Given the rarity of civil jury trials, if you want answers to these questions, now is the time to find out. Or, more specifically, Tuesday, January 23, 2018, at 9:30 a.m. in Courtroom 3, in the main federal courthouse on Kennedy Plaza. Allez voir dire!