The Role of Juror Demographics in Civil Trials

This paper examines the role that juror race, gender, and age play in jury selection and trial outcomes in all civil jury trials that occurred over a twelve-year period in Sarasota and Lake Counties, Florida. The results indicate that juror demographics play a different role in civil trial outcomes than attorneys perceive. While attorneys’ use of peremptory challenges indicates that they view the average female, Black, and Hispanic jurors as being more plaintiff-friendly and juror age as not mattering, we find that female jurors seem to be less plaintiff-friendly than male jurors, juror age is important, and juror race does not seem to matter in the majority of cases. Collectively, these results indicate that attorneys might be engaging in the unconstitutional practice of race and gender-based peremptory challenges, although this practice is not effective in achieving their intended goals.