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Lawyer of the Year in TC? For real?

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nieceelee

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Minnesota I hired a law firm to represent me for a civil case aganist the police. We went to trial. On the jury panel: 4 to 5 or more jurors were or had a close friend or family member directly associated with the some type of law enforcement. Of those jurors, 2 to 3 were directly associated with the department/county I was up aganist. My attorneys did not object. Also, a jury is susposed to be of "your peers". Me: 43, Single, no children, no college degree. Over 75 percent of the jurors were married, had 2 or more kids, way older or way younger, had degrees (BA's and MA's mostly; some with more than one) my attorney did not object. As a matter of fact, my attorney did not object more than once. My attorney asked a question regarding why I left a job, I answered I was fired. They did not follow up with why...because I was taking care of my ill/now deceased father. Then on the very last day of trial, my attorney let one of the police officers be dismissed, The cop that was dismissed even admitted to being physically involved in the incident. These plus several other things happened as well. We lost the case. It should have been cut n dry. This law firm practically begged me to sign the retainer agreement. What can I do? I forgot to mention that my attorney and the defendants attorney are good friends?
 


FlyingRon

Senior Member
First off, there's nowhere in the US Constitution that says anything about "of your peers" with respect to juries. It just says "impartial" with respect to jury. Even if there were "of your peers" it doesn't mean the juries are going to look like you. This is one of those legal concepts that comes over from English common law where it means of other commoners if you were commoner or of other lords if you were a noble. In the US, the legal definition is a cross section of the public, rather than any particular isolated group. If a certain percentage of people in the population as a whole have friends or relatives in law enforcement, arguing you have to exclude all those is NOT going to necessarily work. You certainly don't get to exclude people because they are educated or married or have children and you don't. You do understand that the laws aren't to suit YOU but the population as a whole?

Attorneys and judges all tend to know each other, they see a lot of each other in the course of daily life.

If your attorney is all fired up certain, then appeal. Of course, you've not shown anything that merits any action at the appellate level.

With absolutely no details, there's nothing we can do to help.
 

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