Prominent lawyer calls for judicial reforms

By By William F. West / community editor
September 28, 2002
The head of the Mississippi Defense Lawyers Association is calling for reforms in the selection of jurors and judges in civil cases.
Katherine Kerby, 45, of Columbus, has been practicing law for 21 years. In January, she began serving a year-long term as head of the association, which has about 600 members.
Kerby, in town to speak to the Lauderdale County Bar Association, said she wants counties to either closely scrutinize or abolish computer programs used to select jurors for civil trials.
As an example, she referred to a case in which a Noxubee County Circuit Court judge had to dismiss an entire jury pool after he learned potential jurors had been wrongly selected.
A computer was supposed to pick potential jurors from among all registered voters. But instead, the computer was misprogrammed and didn't choose anyone whose last names began with the letter N and subsequent letters.
The judge also had to dismiss members of a criminal grand jury that already had been selected to hear cases.
Kerby said the majority of circuit clerks statewide use computers that operate on preset patterns set by programmers to choose potential jurors at random.
Kerby also said she believes judges should not be assigned to lawsuits until defendants file their responses. Judges are usually assigned a lawsuit after they are filed.
She said that plaintiffs try to manipulate the legal system by having cases dismissed if they dislike the judge and then re-filing with hopes of landing a sympathetic judge.
Kerby said she believes judges should be chosen more randomly instead of letting plaintiffs shop for the person they believe will be most sympathetic to them.