The Florida Jury Selection Blog » Time Limits http://www.juryblog.com The Cure For The Common Voir Dire Mon, 31 Oct 2011 23:07:44 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Trial Court Must Give Reasonable Notice of Time Limits http://www.juryblog.com/trial-court-must-give-reasonable-notice-of-time-limits/ http://www.juryblog.com/trial-court-must-give-reasonable-notice-of-time-limits/#comments Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:04:12 +0000 Bob Kelley http://www.juryblog.com/index.php/2006/09/26/trial-court-must-give-reasonable-notice-of-time-limits/ Both sides in a criminal case had questioned prospective jurors for “about an hour.” The trial judge then called the defendant to the bench and asked if he had any new questions, and the defendant said he had “plenty.” The trial judge responded, “No you don’t have plenty of new questions. You see the time? You’ve got about ten minutes.” The judge suggested he use his time wisely. After the defendant was convicted, the trial judge was reversed for failing to “give the parties reasonable notice of the time constraints so that they can pace the timing of their questioning as they see fit.” The 2nd DCA held in Roberts v. State, 937 So. 2d 781 (Fla 2nd DCA 2006), that while the trial court has discretion to limit the amount of time for voir dire, if the trial court is going to do so, it must give the parties “reasonable notice” of the time constraints. In this case, the court had not told either party that there was any time limit on voir dire before the questioning started, and thus the imposition of a ten minute time limit in the midst of voir dire was reversible error.

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]]> http://www.juryblog.com/trial-court-must-give-reasonable-notice-of-time-limits/feed/ 0 4th DCA Reaffirms Trial Lawyer’s Right To Adequate Time http://www.juryblog.com/first-post/ http://www.juryblog.com/first-post/#comments Sat, 04 Feb 2006 01:20:34 +0000 Bob Kelley http://www.juryjustice.com/index.php/2006/02/03/first-post/ A trial judge should not impose “arbitrary time limits” or “number-of-question” limits on voir dire. Judge Gary Farmer recently wrote an excellent opinion reaffirming the trial lawyer’s right to have an adequate amount of time to question prospective jurors during the voir dire examination. In Carver v. Niedermayer, 920 So2d 123 (Fla 4th DCA 2006), the Court held that the time limits imposed by the trial judge during voir dire were “arbitrary” and deprived counsel of a fair opportunity to identify prospective jurors for challenge. It is well established in Florida that it is error for a trial judge to impose arbitrary or unreasonable time limits or number-of-question limits on the voir dire examination of jurors. The trial attorney, Gregg Schlesinger, did a great job asserting his client’s rights and preserving the record for appeal. This opinion is well worth reading and should be a part of every lawyer’s trial notebook.

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