Contacting Jurors Is Prohibited Pretrial; Ask a Judge Post-trial

What can I do to investigate and contact jurors either before a trial or after the trial is completed?

The best answer is you should never have any contact with jurors before trial and probably not attempt any investigation of jurors before trial. The best lawyers don’t normally do that. Lawyers who try jury trials regularly get a sense of jurors and people. They get that sense from the jury questionnaire that’s given in terms of jobs, schooling, family situation and geographic location where the jurors reside. The questionnaire handed to the lawyers when the 40 to 50 jurors are brought into the courtroom on a criminal case or 20 to 30 jurors are brought in on a civil case contains this basic information. Good lawyers know to watch body language and learn to rely on their instincts. But, it’s always just a good guess. Many excellent trial lawyers have reached the conclusion that they should not over think jury selection. That may be excellent advice since some jurors that I chose turn out to be the ones most adamantly opposed, etc.