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California Code of Civil Procedure Section 222.5

Legal Research Home > California Laws > Code of Civil Procedure > California Code of Civil Procedure Section 222.5

To select a fair and impartial jury in civil jury trials,
the trial judge shall examine the prospective jurors. Upon completion
of the judge's initial examination, counsel for each party shall
have the right to examine, by oral and direct questioning, any of the
prospective jurors in order to enable counsel to intelligently
exercise both peremptory challenges and challenges for cause. During
any examination conducted by counsel for the parties, the trial judge
should permit liberal and probing examination calculated to discover
bias or prejudice with regard to the circumstances of the particular
case. The fact that a topic has been included in the judge's
examination should not preclude additional nonrepetitive or
nonduplicative questioning in the same area by counsel.
   The trial judge should allow a brief opening statement by counsel
for each party prior to the commencement of the oral questioning
phase of the voir dire process.
   The scope of the examination conducted by counsel shall be within
reasonable limits prescribed by the trial judge in the judge's sound
discretion. In exercising his or her sound discretion as to the form
and subject matter of voir dire questions, the trial judge should
consider, among other criteria, any unique or complex elements, legal
or factual, in the case and the individual responses or conduct of
jurors which may evince attitudes inconsistent with suitability to
serve as a fair and impartial juror in the particular case. Specific
unreasonable or arbitrary time limits shall not be imposed in any
case. The trial judge shall not establish a blanket policy of a time
limit for voir dire.
   The trial judge should permit counsel to conduct voir dire
examination without requiring prior submission of the questions
unless a particular counsel engages in improper questioning. For
purposes of this section, an "improper question" is any question
that, as its dominant purpose, attempts to precondition the
prospective jurors to a particular result, indoctrinate the jury, or
question the prospective jurors concerning the pleadings or the
applicable law. A court shall not arbitrarily or unreasonably refuse
to submit reasonable written questionnaires, the contents of which
are determined by the court in its sound discretion, when requested
by counsel. If a questionnaire is utilized, the parties should be
given reasonable time to evaluate the responses to the questionnaires
before oral questioning commences. To help facilitate the jury
selection process, the judge in civil trials should provide the
parties with both the alphabetical list and the list of prospective
jurors in the order in which they will be called.
   In civil cases, the court may, upon stipulation by counsel for all
the parties appearing in the action, permit counsel to examine the
prospective jurors outside a judge's presence.

Last modified: February 13, 2012