Time spent on jury selection can be greatly reduced through the use of several techniques. First, a court can select multiple juries from a single venire to hear a series of asbestos cases. One court calls in several hundred jurors and selects individual juries of six and one alternate. All but one of the juries are put on call. When one case is finished, the next jury is available immediately. Another court uses the same process to select three juries at one sitting. Both courts report that this voir dire procedure takes less than one day.
Second, a court can streamline the participation of counsel in the jury selection process. For example, one court allows counsel ten minutes each to question the panel. Other courts report that they use no time limits because case law in their circuit discourages such limits. They do, however, impose an implicit limitation by requiring written questions.