What is the test for obtaining personal information of a jury member in a civil case?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Force, 170 Cal.App.4th 797, 89 Cal. Rptr. 3d 50 (Cal. App. 2009):

(26) Here, the sole basis for seeking personal juror information was comments made to defendant's trial counsel after the hearing that she claimed suggested the possibility juror misconduct occurred during deliberations. "Upon an inquiry as to the validity of a verdict, any otherwise admissible evidence may be received as to statements made, or conduct, conditions, or events occurring, either within or without the jury room, of such a character as is likely to have influenced the verdict improperly. No evidence is admissible to show the effect of such statement, conduct, condition, or event upon a juror either in influencing him to assent to or dissent from the verdict or concerning the mental processes by which it was determined." (Evid. Code, 1150, subd. (a).) Thus, the statute recognizes a "distinction between proof of overt acts, objectively ascertainable, and proof of the subjective reasoning processes of the individual juror, which can be neither corroborated nor disproved ...." (People v. Hutchinson (1969) 71 Cal.2d 342, 349 [78 Cal.Rptr. 196, 455 P.2d 132].) "`This limitation prevents one juror from upsetting a verdict of the whole jury by impugning his own or his fellow jurors' mental processes or reasons for assent or dissent.' [Citations.]" (People v. Cox (1991) 53 Cal.3d 618, 694 [280 Cal.Rptr. 692, 809 P.2d 351].)

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