Opinion ID: 1059521
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Jury Panel Lists

Text: NS's final assignment of error involves the application of Code § 8.01-353. NS maintains that the provision in Code § 8.01-353 that a court officer shall make available ... a copy of the jury panel to be used for the trial of the case at least forty-eight hours before the trial is mandatory and the failure to comply with this provision is reversible error. In this case, NS's counsel requested and received the jury panel list forty-eight hours before the scheduled trial. However, on the day of trial, a number of potential jurors called for jury duty could not get to the courthouse due to inclement weather. Because only approximately forty potential jurors arrived, all the potential jurors were put into a combined pool. This pool was used first for picking a jury for a criminal case scheduled for trial. The remaining twenty-eight potential jurors were then made available for Bowles' trial. The eight-member jury ultimately chosen from this pool for Bowles' case consisted of six persons who were not on the jury panel list previously furnished to NS's counsel. This was error, NS concludes, and the trial court should have granted either NS's motion for a continuance or NS's motion for a new trial. Furnishing counsel with a jury panel list is part of a statutory procedure for the impaneling of jurors. That procedure involves three separate stages at which potential jurors are identified prior to choosing the final members of the jury. The first stage is the creation of a master jury list. The master jury list is assembled annually by jury commissioners and utilized for the following twelve month period. Code § 8.01-345. At the second stage, a list of potential jurors is drawn from the master list for service during a term of court. Code § 8.01-348. Counsel in jury cases to be tried during that term have access to this term list. Code § 8.01-351. The final stage is the creation of the jury panel list, the list at issue in this case. The judge indicates the number of persons needed to hear the trial of a case and that number is selected from the term list. Code § 8.01-355. Those selected are notified to appear in court on a day directed by the court. Code § 8.01-353. Notification must be given by mailing summonses seven days before the potential jurors are to appear. Code § 8.01-298. Alternative methods for identifying and securing potential jurors also are provided by statute. Code § 8.01-353 allows a judge to verbally direct a person already summoned for a jury panel to appear at a later date. Also, if a sufficient number of jurors summoned cannot be obtained for the trial of any case, the judge may select from the names on the [master jury list] the names of as many persons as he deems necessary and cause them to be summoned to appear forthwith for the trial. Code § 8.01-355. Finally, both Code §§ 8.01-352 and 353 restrict the use of certain irregularities or errors in providing information or selecting potential jurors as the basis for objections, mistrials, or reversible errors on appeal. The right to a jury trial is one of the cornerstones of our legal system, and complying with the procedures for insuring the presence of a fair and impartial jury is of the highest priority. As NS argues, an important part of that process is the ability of the parties to investigate potential jurors for information which may disqualify a juror for cause or otherwise impact the jury selection process. However, the statutory scheme does not contemplate that a full and accurate jury panel list will always be available for counsel forty-eight hours before the trial of the case. For example, the statutes specifically allow the trial judge to delay the appearance of previously-summoned members of a jury panel and to call persons on the term list to serve for a particular trial, even though those persons were not on the jury panel list. Code §§ 8.01-353, -355. These provisions recognize that unanticipated circumstances requiring alternative means of securing a jury panel will arise. In these circumstances, the members of the actual jury panel necessarily will vary from those persons listed on a jury panel list provided forty-eight hours before trial. Thus, even assuming without deciding that the requirement in Code § 8.01-353 regarding provision of the jury panel list is mandatory, as NS argues, the mandatory nature of that provision cannot extend to requiring that the jury panel list provided to counsel prior to trial be identical to the actual jury panel when circumstances require reconstitution of the jury panel. The need to reconstitute the jury panel under the circumstances of this case was clear and has not been challenged by NS. No error was assigned to the manner in which the trial court reconstituted the jury panel nor was there any assignment of error that the resulting jury was not impartial. In arguing that the provisions of Code § 8.01-353 are mandatory, NS posits that the failure to comply with the statute constitutes, in and of itself, injustice, but NS does not cite to any specific prejudice resulting from the trial court's action. NS's only complaint is that the jury panel list supplied before the trial did not accurately reflect the true makeup of the jury panel. Accordingly, we conclude that the trial court did not err in denying NS's motions for a continuance and for a new trial because some of the jury panel members were not identified in the jury panel list given to NS prior to trial. In summary, for the reasons stated, we hold that the trial court did not err in admitting the opinions of Dr. Schinnick, in submitting the issue of NS's negligence to the jury, and in denying NS's motions for a continuance and a new trial based on a discrepancy between the jury panel list and members of the jury panel. Accordingly, the judgment of the trial court will be affirmed. Affirmed.