Empaneling the jury

Empaneling the jury

The process of selecting a jury at the beginning of a criminal trial.

There is a number of stages to the process:
First, the jury panel attend court.
Second, names are selected at random from the jury panel to become jurors.
Third, the Crown may stand aside any potential juror.
Fourth, the Defence may challenge any potential juror.
Fifth, the trial judge checks that the potential jurors do not have any knowledge about the case and are available for the expected length of the trial. Jurors can ask the trial judge to be excused.
If a juror is excused, another name is selected at random from the jury panel to become a juror.

When there are 12 members of the panel, and any reserve jurors, the jury is sworn in.