Jury selection personal injury Arizona trials go through works differently than what most people picture from television. Arizona is the only state in the country that has eliminated peremptory strikes entirely. Attorneys can no longer remove a juror simply because they don’t like the way they answered a question. Every removal now has to be justified.
Building the jury pool
Arizona’s superior courts build a master jury list under A.R.S. § 21-301. That list combines voter registration records with state driver’s license and ID records. The court uses this list to randomly summon potential jurors. Those jurors then complete a questionnaire covering basic eligibility. They must be a U.S. citizen, at least 18, a county resident, and proficient enough in English to serve.
How a civil jury is actually sized
An Arizona superior court civil jury has eight members. A verdict requires agreement from at least six of them, unless both sides stipulate to a different number in advance. That’s a meaningfully lower bar than the unanimous twelve-person jury most people expect from criminal trials on television.
Jury selection personal injury Arizona voir dire without peremptory strikes
Arizona amended its civil and criminal procedure rules effective January 1, 2022. Attorneys previously used peremptory challenges to remove a limited number of jurors without stating a reason. The rule change eliminated that tool altogether. Now, the only way to remove a prospective juror is a challenge for cause. A party has to convince the judge that a specific juror can’t be fair or impartial, based on their actual answers. Courts responded by leaning more heavily on detailed, case-specific written questionnaires completed before oral questioning even begins.
Why the change happened
The Arizona Supreme Court made the change to reduce a specific risk. Jury selection could be used to exclude jurors based on race or other improper factors. That concern persisted nationally even after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Batson v. Kentucky decision restricted race-based strikes decades earlier. Arizona’s solution removed the tool causing the problem rather than continuing to police how it was used.
The bottom line
Jury selection in an Arizona civil trial is more deliberate, and more transparent, than the version most people expect. Every removal has to survive a for-cause challenge on the record, not a quiet, unexplained strike. Neither side loses the ability to shape who hears the case. The process now runs almost entirely through written questionnaires and pointed voir dire questions instead of gut-feeling dismissals. It’s a genuinely unusual system, and Arizona remains the only state that runs it this way.
Frequently asked questions
Eight jurors, with a verdict requiring at least six in agreement unless the parties stipulate to a different number.
No. Arizona eliminated peremptory strikes for both civil and criminal trials effective January 1, 2022, the first state to do so.
Through a challenge for cause, which requires convincing the judge that a specific juror’s answers show they can’t be fair or impartial.
The Arizona Supreme Court cited ongoing concerns that peremptory strikes were still being used to exclude jurors based on race despite existing legal restrictions.
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This article explains general Arizona jury selection procedures for informational purposes and is not legal advice. Court rules and procedures can change; confirm current requirements with the applicable court or an attorney.