Shit! Provider on My Jury Panel!

[Shackleton]

About a month or so ago, I'm starting a new trial and in walks the jury panel. On the front row is a nice looking woman who looks familiar to me for some reason, but who I cannot quite place. After a few minutes, it begins to dawn on me that she is a local provider. Not only is she a local provider, but I have been BCD with her one time 2-3 years ago!

So, do I have any ethical obligation to reveal our relationship?
Does she when she's asked if she knows any of the lawyers?
Did I shit my pants when that question was asked to the panel?
Do I want her on my jury?
Has this ever happened to anyone before?
Should I give her a call now to schedule an appointment because I keep thinking about her?

Just want to hear others thoughts and needed to tell someone. I'll tell what happened later if anyone is interested.

[Guest042715]

i'm curious to see how this one turns out. I for one try to stay away from court rooms. Hell, i wake up in a cold sweat thinking about what happens when i finally run into a provider at the supermarket or something with my SO.

[gman44]

She's most likely of the jury because she can be fair and biased. I'd say forget about that fact the she's a provider and get on with you lawyer life. Doing what you do or any of us do in the hobby we are bound to run into a provider sometime. We all just need to know how to deal with it

[ANONONE]

LOL!!!!

Did she recognize you?

Don't you guys get a handful of "no reason needed" revocations in a given jury pool?

That might be the best way to handle it, especially if it is going to be a long trial. You could send her a PM, tell her no hard feelings and that you are just looking out for your mutual safety, and by the way let's get BCD as soon as you are off the rotation!

[ferdburf]

And what exactly again does voir dire translate into in English? LMAO!!!!
Sorry, that's a rhetorical question. Voir dire = Speak the truth!

[urhuckleberry]

I rest my case.

Huck

[looiecypher]

Ethically you should ask her to be removed.No matter what she could be considered to be biased .What if the opposing lawyers should somehow find out about your relationship.It could cause you to lose the case and possibly your license.
Play it safe.Ask her to be removed and then call her to set up an appointment.She will probably be so happy to get out of jury duty she will give you an extra good time.

[Sarcastro]

Seriously? Approach the bench prior to voir dire and tell the judge that you've had a "personal relationship" with the prospective juror, and that revealing that relationship in open court could be embarrassing to her and others. The judge will quietly remove her from the venire and replace her with another from the jury pool. End of problem.

Why would you not do the right thing?

[Shackleton]

How am I supposed to know she's on the panel before the panel is seated?

[notdeadyet]

Maybe this topic is a good one for a CLE ethics hour. But, I'm not sure how the presenter would begin the talk; somehow, a start of "I was surfing an escort site the other day and found an interesting legal issue" seems a bit awkward.

[Sarcastro]

You said she was on the panel.

. . . I'm starting a new trial and in walks the jury panel.

By which I presume you meant the venire. I don't know why she'd walk into the courtroom unless she was there for voir dire. Did you intend to say that she was part of the jury pool?

[Guest032514-1]

Exclude her asap.

[Shackleton]

No, not the general jury pool; she was part of the venire. I had understood you to be saying that I should somehow alert the judge before the jury panel comes into the courtroom for voir dire. I don't know how I could have ever done that. I now gather that you're suggesting that I alert the judge in the brief moment between the time that jury panel enters the courtroom and the time that the judge starts speaking (the amount of time it takes for 42 people to walk into a courtroom and be seated--maybe a minute or two). In my case, that was an impossibility. I did not even see her or recognize her as someone who looked familiar until after voir dire had begun, it did not click who she might be until a few minutes later, after another few minutes and after she first spoke I thought it was her (maybe 80-90% sure), and I did not become relatively certain it was her until that evening when I looked at her provider pics.

[youngatheart]

I'm sorry but YOU'RE the lawyer. Why are you asking us? You know what the right thing to do is. Are you looking for confirmation or just bragging?

[Horizondb]

How many cases have you tried? It is not how you know the panelist it is that you might know the panelist. Approach the bench and confide that you might know panelist number (x) and have the judge remove her under potential conflict.