1-11-109. Procedure for selecting jury; contents of certificate; summons.
(a) The clerk shall choose the prospective jurors from the base jury list using a random method of selection.
(b) Repealed By Laws 2014, Ch. 53, § 2.
(c) If any person selected is not qualified to serve as a trial juror, the name of the person shall be stricken from the base jury list from which summoned. If any person selected is exempt from serving as a trial juror under W.S. 1-11-103(a) and the person has claimed the exemption under W.S. 1-11-105, then the name of the person shall be stricken from the base jury list for the jury term from which summoned.
(d) When the necessary number of jurors has been randomly selected, the clerk shall make and certify a list of the names selected. The certificate shall state:
(i) The date of the court order for the selection;
(ii) The date of the selection;
(iii) The number of jurors selected;
(iv) The names and addresses of the competent jurors; and
(v) The place where the jurors are required to appear.
(e) The jurors on the certified list shall be summoned to appear.
Each grand juror and petit juror summoned shall appear before the court on the day and at the hour specified by the court, and depart only with permission of the court.
(a) The persons summoned by the clerk shall appear in answer to the summons and be examined as to their qualifications. If after all qualified trial jurors have been accepted it appears that there are not enough in attendance, the court shall order the clerk to randomly select the necessary number of names from the base jury list to complete the jury panel, and the clerk shall continue to randomly select names until a sufficient number of jurors are obtained. The persons so selected shall be summoned to appear.
(b) Repealed by Laws 1983, ch. 138, § 3.
(a) Service of a summons may be made by such means as the court may order. If service is accomplished through the sheriff's office, the sheriff's costs shall be paid by the county.
(b) If necessary the court may require proof of service.
Any juror summoned who willfully and without reasonable excuse fails to attend may be arrested and compelled to attend and is subject to contempt of court.
At the opening of court on the day that trial jurors are summoned and notified to appear, the clerk shall call the names of those jurors notified to appear. The court shall hear the jurors who are present, and shall excuse those whom the court finds are exempt, disqualified or have material cause for being excused.
1-11-118. Procedure upon exhaustion of prospective jurors during empaneling.
If at any time during the empaneling of a jury all the names selected for the panel are exhausted, the court shall enter an order directing that such additional number of names as necessary be randomly selected from the base jury list. The court may excuse any jurors so selected if it appears that, because of distance, the delay occasioned by notifying the juror and requiring his presence would unduly prolong empaneling the trial jury. The clerk shall notify the persons selected and not excused to appear in court immediately. The process shall continue from time to time when necessary until a jury is obtained.
Trial juries in circuit courts shall be composed of six (6) persons. Trial juries in civil cases and all other proceedings in the district courts except criminal cases shall be composed of six (6) jurors unless one (1) of the parties to the action files a written demand for twelve (12) jurors within the time a demand for jury may be filed, in which event the number of jurors shall be twelve (12). Jurors in all courts shall be allowed the same fees and mileage as jurors in district court.
1-11-120. Persons sworn to constitute jury; generally.
The first six (6) persons, or other number of persons designated for a jury under W.S. 1-11-119, who appear as their names are randomly selected and are approved as indifferent between the parties and not discharged or excused shall be sworn and constitute the jury to try the issue.
1-11-123. Discharge of jurors; absent or excused jurors.
The name of a juror who is absent when his name is selected, or is set aside, or excused from serving on that trial shall remain on the base jury list.
1-11-125. Procedure when sufficient number of jurors fail to attend.
If a sufficient number of jurors duly selected and notified do not attend to form a jury the court shall direct the clerk to select a sufficient number of names from the base jury list to complete the jury and shall summon the persons selected to attend immediately or at a time fixed by the court. If for any reason a sufficient number of jurors to try the issue is not obtained from the persons notified, the court may make successive orders until a sufficient number is obtained. The court may excuse any juror so selected if it appears that, because of distance, the delay occasioned by summoning the juror and requiring his presence would unduly prolong empaneling the trial jury. Each person so notified, unless excused by the court, shall serve as a juror at the trial. For a neglect or refusal to serve he may be fined in the same manner as a trial juror regularly selected and notified and he is subject to the same exceptions and challenges as any other trial juror.
1-11-126. No objection that jury not original one returned.
It is not a valid objection to a jury that it contains none of the jurors originally returned to the court or is only partially composed of such jurors or that the base jury list was not supplemented as permitted herein.
The supreme court shall compile a base jury list for each county. The supreme court shall compile a base jury list for the state as necessary under W.S. 7-5-303. The base jury lists shall be compiled from voter lists and may also include names from Wyoming driver's license or Wyoming department of transportation state identification lists. The base jury lists prepared by the supreme court and panels or lists of prospective jurors selected by the clerk of court may be compiled and maintained using any manual, mechanical, electronic or other means calculated to ensure the integrity of the system and a random selection process.
1-11-201. Oath of jurors; jury ordered into custody.
As soon as the jury is selected an oath shall be administered to the jurors that they will truly try the matter in issue between ...., the plaintiff, and ...., the defendant, and render a true verdict according to the evidence. After the oath has been administered and the jury fully empaneled, the court shall order the jury into the custody of the officer selected by the court. The jurors shall not separate from the custody of the officer until they have been duly discharged, unless by the consent of the parties to the action. The officer shall provide for suitable quarters and food for the jury pending the trial.
(a) Challenges for cause may be taken on one (1) or more of the following grounds:
(i) A lack of any of the qualifications prescribed by statute which render a person competent as a juror;
(ii) Relationship by consanguinity or affinity within the third degree to either party;
(iii) Standing in the relation of debtor or creditor, guardian or ward, master or servant, or principal or agent to either party, or being a partner united in business with either party, or being security on any bond or obligation for either party;
(iv) Having served as a juror or a witness in a previous trial between the same parties for the same cause of action, or being then a witness therein;
(v) Interest on the part of the juror in the event or question involved in the action, but not an interest of the juror as a member or citizen of a municipal corporation;
(vi) Having formed or expressed an unqualified opinion or belief as to the merits or the main question of the action. The reading of newspaper accounts of the subject matter before the court shall not disqualify the juror either for bias or opinion;
(vii) The existence of a state of mind in the juror evincing enmity or bias for either party.
All challenges for cause shall be tried by the court, and the juror challenged, and any other persons may be examined as witnesses upon the trial of the challenge.
(a) When the jury has been sworn, the trial shall proceed in the following order, unless the court for good cause otherwise directs:
(i) The party who has the burden of the issues may briefly state his case and the evidence by which he expects to sustain it;
(ii) The adverse party may then briefly state his defense and the evidence he expects to offer in support of it;
(iii) The party who has the burden of the issues shall first produce his evidence, the adverse party will then produce his evidence;
(iv) The parties will then be confined to rebutting evidence unless the court permits them to offer evidence in their original case;
(v) When the evidence is concluded, and either party desires special instructions to be given to the jury, the instructions shall be reduced to writing, numbered and signed by the party or his attorney asking the same, and delivered to the court;
(vi) Before argument of the cause is begun, the court shall give such instructions of the law to the jury as may be necessary. The instructions shall be in writing, numbered and signed by the judge;
(vii) Where either party asks special instructions to be given to the jury, the court shall either give such instructions as requested, give the instructions with modifications, or refuse to give them. The court shall mark each instruction offered so that it shall appear which instructions were given in whole or in part, and which were refused, so that either party may except to the instructions as given, refused or modified. All instructions given by the court together with those refused shall be filed as a part of the record.
When the court considers it proper for the jurors to view the property which is the subject of litigation or the place in which any material fact occurred, it may order them to be conducted in a body under the charge of an officer to the place which shall be shown to them by a person appointed by the court for that purpose. While the jurors are absent no person other than the person so appointed shall speak to them on any subject connected with the trial.
1-11-207. Decision or deliberation by jury; duty of officer in charge of jury.
When the case is submitted, the jury may decide in court or retire for deliberation. If the jurors retire, they shall be kept together in some convenient place under the charge of an officer until they agree upon a verdict or are discharged by the court. The court may permit them to separate temporarily at night or at their meals. The officer having them under his charge shall not allow any communication to be made to them nor make any himself except to ask them if they have agreed upon their verdict, unless by order of the court. He shall not communicate to any person the state of their deliberations or the verdict agreed upon before their verdict is rendered.
1-11-208. Admonition to jurors when permitted to separate.
If the jurors are permitted to separate during the trial or after the case is submitted to them, they shall be admonished by the court that it is their duty not to converse with nor allow themselves to be addressed by any person on any subject of the trial, and that they are not to form or express an opinion until the cause is finally submitted to them.
1-11-209. Further information after jury's retirement.
After the jurors have retired for deliberation, if there is a disagreement between them as to any part of the testimony, or if they desire to be informed as to any part of the law arising in the case, they may request the officer to conduct them to the court where information upon the matter of law shall be given. The court may give its recollection as to the testimony on the points in dispute, in the presence of or after notice to the parties or their counsel.
The jury may be discharged by the court on account of the sickness of a juror or any accident or calamity requiring its discharge, or by consent of both parties or after the jurors have been kept together until it appears there is no probability of their agreeing.
When the jury is discharged after the cause is submitted or during the trial, the cause may be tried again immediately or at a future time as the court directs.
When the jurors agree upon their verdict, it shall be reduced to writing and signed by the foreman. They shall then be conducted into court, their names called by the clerk and the verdict rendered by the foreman. The clerk shall then read the verdict to the jury and inquire whether it is their verdict.
If a jury disagrees, or if when the jury is polled a juror answers in the negative, or if the verdict is defective in substance, the jury shall be sent out again for further deliberation and either party may require the jury to be polled by the clerk or court asking each juror if it is his verdict.
1-11-214. Discharge of jury; correcting defective verdict.
If no disagreement is expressed and neither party requires the jury to be polled, or on polling each juror answers in the affirmative, the verdict is complete and the jury shall be discharged. If the verdict is defective in form only, it may be corrected by the court with the assent of the jurors before they are discharged.
Jurors shall receive mileage at the rate set in W.S. 9-3-103 when the distance required to be traveled by the juror from the juror's place of residence to the place of trial exceeds five (5) miles one (1) way.
Jurors shall receive thirty dollars ($30.00) for each full or part day of actual attendance. A juror in attendance for more than five (5) consecutive days, exclusive of Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, may, in the discretion of the court, be allowed an additional twenty dollars ($20.00) per day for each day actually in attendance.
The clerk of the court shall note the time of the discharge of each juror summoned and issue to the juror a certificate under seal of the court for the amount due him for mileage and juror fees.
(a) No employer shall discharge, threaten to discharge, intimidate or coerce any employee by reason of the employee's jury service, for the attendance or scheduled attendance in connection with jury service, in any court in the state of Wyoming.
(b) Any employer who violates the provisions of this section:
(i) May be enjoined from further violations of this section in order to provide other appropriate relief, including but not limited to reinstatement; and
(ii) Is liable for exemplary damages to the employee in an amount set by the court, but not to exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000.00) for each violation as to each employee; and
(iii) Is liable for the employee's reasonable costs and attorney's fees, as set by the court, in enforcing his rights hereunder.
(c) Any individual who is reinstated to a position of employment in accordance with this section shall be considered as having been on furlough or leave of absence during his period of jury service, shall be reinstated to his position of employment without loss of seniority and is entitled to participate in insurance or other benefits offered by the employer pursuant to established rules and practices relating to employees on furlough or on leave of absence in effect with the employer at the time the individual entered upon jury service.
(d) No action by an employee aggrieved hereunder shall be brought more than six (6) months after the alleged violation.
(e) The court may award a prevailing employer a reasonable attorney's fee as part of the cost if the court determines that any action brought by an employee is frivolous, vexatious or brought in bad faith.