Founding Father John Adams observed that the most sacred duty of government is to provide “equal and impartial justice to all citizens.” In keeping with that view, both the United States and Texas constitutions guarantee each of us the right to trial by an impartial jury. If our jury system is to work justly, the selection process must be designed to seat, in fact, an impartial jury. Yet, our current Texas civil trial system allows lawyers and jury consultants ample opportunity to pick jurors that are partial to their respective clients.

The jury system is a bulwark of democracy, but like any other democratic process, it can be rigged. In parts of Texas, some lawyers have developed the art of trick questions during jury selection (known as “voir dire”) that are designed to eliminate fair-minded jurors. When these questions winnow out enough responsible citizens, those who remain on the jury bear little resemblance to the community they are supposed to represent.

All of us in Texans for Lawsuit Reform can be proud of our contributions to the sweeping civil justice reforms that have been enacted into law over the past decade. While there is still serious work ahead of us on a number of fronts, including statutory reform, the TLRinspired legislative enactments of recent years have taken the Texas civil justice system from one that was deeply feared and widely ridiculed to one that now has a statutory basis for fairness and predictability.