FOR TRIAL ATTORNEYS
Jury Consulting in Austin, Texas
Voir dire strategy and jury selection for trial attorneys, from a lawyer who has spent two decades in Texas courtrooms.
What a jury consultant actually does
A jury consultant, sometimes called a trial consultant, helps a trial team understand the strangers who will decide the case. The heart of the work is voir dire, the questioning of the panel that happens before a jury is ever sworn.
Most jury consultants come to the work from psychology or market research. They know surveys. Victoria Broussard comes to it from twenty years of family law practice in Texas courtrooms. The recommendation further down this page was written by a trial lawyer who sat second chair and watched her run one.
That difference matters. A consultant who has never held a strike list reads a panel like data. A lawyer who has picked her own juries reads it like the room it is.
Voir dire is where the case first gets decided
Voir dire is a French phrase. It means to speak the truth. In practice it is the conversation between the lawyers and the jury panel, and it is the one part of a trial built for the jurors to do the talking.
Each side can ask the court to remove jurors for cause, and each side holds a limited number of peremptory strikes. Every one of those decisions rests on what the panel says out loud.
Which is the problem. Most panels say very little. People do not open up to a stranger in a suit who is visibly evaluating them. A quiet panel is an unread panel, and every strike becomes a guess.
How Victoria gets a panel talking
Family law taught her the hardest version of this skill. In a divorce or conservatorship trial, jurors are asked to speak about marriage, children, money and violence in front of strangers. Nobody volunteers that easily.
So she does not run voir dire as an examination. She runs it as a conversation she is genuinely part of. She laughs when something is funny and answers honestly when she is asked. Panels notice, and they answer in kind.
The result is the thing a trial team actually needs: jurors saying what they really think before the strikes are decided, not after the verdict.
From the second chair
A recommendation from a fellow trial lawyer
I’ve tried a lot of cases over my nearly 30 years of litigation, and I know a lot of lawyers who do not like selecting a jury.
So when I tell you, if that’s you, Victoria Broussard is someone worth hiring as a jury consultant, I’m not saying it lightly.
I recently sat second chair while Victoria handled voir dire, and this is what I witnessed.
She doesn’t look like a lawyer, and that’s the whole point
Her dress is different. Her hair cut and color are different… partially shaved and purple to be exact. Most importantly, the way she carries herself and connects is different. And before I watched her work, I wondered how all of this would land in a courtroom. Now I know, it lands perfectly with jurors. Because while the panel was expecting another stiff suit behind a legal pad, they got a real person who seemed genuinely interested in what they had to say.
Their walls came down before she even finished her first question.
What that actually looked like in practice
She laughed when something was funny. She showed concern for their lives and needs. She opened up and showed vulnerability. She didn’t perform concern. And because she was relaxed, the panel was relaxed. Because she was honest, they were honest back. That’s not a technique. That’s just who she is. And it’s rare in our profession.
The voir dire process she ran gave us exactly what you’re always chasing, jurors who said what they actually thought, including the stuff they probably didn’t plan on saying. We seated a strong panel.
If you’ve got a case where picking the right jury matters, and when doesn’t it, call Victoria. I’d gladly sit second chair again just to watch her work.
Brian Bernard, Esq., Austin, Texas
Every case and every panel is different. No result is promised, and one trial’s outcome does not predict another’s.
Ways to bring her into your case
Every engagement is shaped around the case. Some teams want a strategy session and a set of voir dire questions built for their facts. Some want her at counsel table, reading the panel while they work.
Others hand her voir dire outright, the way the recommendation above describes. She prepares with your team, runs the questioning, and works through the strike decisions with you before the jury is sworn.
Her home courts are in Travis and Williamson counties, and she takes other Texas venues by arrangement. Preparation runs in person or over Zoom, whichever the trial schedule allows.
Texas lets juries decide family cases
Texas is the only state where a jury can decide who becomes a child’s managing conservator and where the child primarily lives. Family Code Section 105.002 gives parties that right on request.
Most family lawyers face a jury panel so rarely that voir dire never becomes comfortable. That is exactly the moment a consultant who has lived in family courtrooms for two decades earns her place at the table.
If a conservatorship jury trial is ahead of you, our child custody page covers how these cases are decided.
How we approach it
01
Start with the case
A short conversation about the parties, the venue and the trial date. A conflict check runs first.
02
Shape the questions
Together you build a voir dire plan: themes to test, questions to ask, jurors to watch for.
03
Work the panel
In court she leads voir dire or sits beside you, reading answers, body language and silence.
04
Decide the strikes
Challenges for cause, peremptory strikes and the final panel, worked through together before the jury is sworn.
At a glance
Service
Jury and trial consulting
For
Trial attorneys and their clients
Focus
Voir dire and jury selection
Home courts
Travis and Williamson counties
Statewide
Texas venues by arrangement
Preparation
In person or over Zoom
Fees
Discussed and set at the first conversation
Trial date on the calendar?
A confidential conversation about the case, the venue and the panel you are likely to face. A conflict check comes first, always.
What is a jury consultant?
A jury consultant, also called a trial consultant, is someone a trial team brings in to help select the jury. The work covers voir dire strategy, the questions put to the panel, reading the answers, and deciding challenges and strikes. Some consultants are researchers. Victoria does it as a trial lawyer, because she is one.
What does a jury consultant do during voir dire?
Depending on the engagement, she designs the questioning plan, runs voir dire herself, or sits at counsel table reading the panel while the trial team works. Afterward she works through the strike list with you, juror by juror, before the panel is sworn.
What does voir dire mean?
It is a French phrase meaning to speak the truth. In an American courtroom it is the questioning of prospective jurors before trial, where the lawyers learn enough about each person to decide challenges for cause and peremptory strikes.
How long does jury selection take in Texas?
In many Texas civil and family cases, voir dire runs from a morning to a full day. Complex or high-profile cases can take longer. No timeline is promised. The venue, the judge and the case set the pace.
Can a jury really decide a custody case in Texas?
Yes. Texas is the only state that gives parties the right to a jury verdict on conservatorship and primary residence. Family Code Section 105.002 sets out what a jury can and cannot decide. Our child custody page covers these cases in detail.
Do you take cases outside Austin?
Her home courts are in Travis and Williamson counties. Other Texas venues work by arrangement, and preparation can run over Zoom, so distance is rarely the deciding factor.
How are fees set?
At the first conversation, once the scope is clear. A strategy session is a different engagement from full trial days at counsel table, so the work is defined first and the fee follows it.
Can Victoria consult on a case she is mediating?
No. A mediator is neutral and serves both sides, so she cannot join one side’s trial team in the same matter. A conflict check runs before any jury consulting engagement is accepted.
We already have a full trial team. Where does she fit?
Wherever the team wants her. Some bring her in only to build the voir dire plan. Some want a second set of eyes on the panel. Some hand her the questioning. Your team stays in charge of the case.
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