Strike-Free Voir Dire

Arizona eliminated peremptory challenges in January 2022, the first state to do so. California's objective-observer standard reached all civil cases in January 2026. Washington, New Jersey, and Connecticut are moving the same direction.

Where strikes are limited or gone, the remaining levers in jury selection are lawful ones: the quality of the questions, the reading of communication in the room, and cause-challenge advocacy built from what jurors actually say and do. Those are skills, and they are trainable.

Kathryn trained prosecutors for that world before it arrived. This session teaches communication based jury selection: observation, connection, and cause challenges built from what jurors actually say and do.

Attendees will be able to

1. Ask open questions that surface bias through conversation rather than through a strike.
2. Read the communication signals a panel gives before and between answers.
3. Build a cause challenge from a juror's own words and observable behavior.
4. Run a panel exchange that keeps the room talking instead of shutting it down.