Also known as: peers · jury of peers · peerage
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A person who holds equal status, rank, or character with another.
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Parker Phillips offers expert testimony on a novel drug test in a products liability suit. The court evaluates whether the methodology has been subjected to peer review and publication as one reliability factor. Because no peers in the scientific community have examined the approach, the testimony is excluded.
The prosecutor strikes all Black venire members from the jury pool in Pearl Porter's criminal trial. The defense argues that the strikes deny Porter a jury composed of her peers or equals in legal status. The court finds purposeful discrimination and orders a new venire drawn.
Phuong Pham faces criminal charges and demands trial by a jury of her peers. The court recognizes that the jury must consist of persons having the same legal status in society as the accused. Any systematic exclusion of such peers violates equal protection.
Philip Powell sues for securities fraud and seeks a jury trial. The court notes that the Framers adopted the Seventh Amendment because litigants expected different results from a jury of their peers than from sovereign judges. The jury right is therefore preserved.
Pablo Perez faces criminal charges and requests trial by jury rather than an administrative tribunal. The court holds that the Sixth Amendment requires a jury drawn from persons of equal legal status to the accused. Substitution of a non-peer decision-maker would violate that guarantee.
Patricia Patel is charged with a serious crime and requests a jury trial. The court holds that the Sixth Amendment guarantees trial by a jury drawn from a body of peers or equals. Denial of that right violates due process.
A jury of peers consists of persons who hold the same legal status in society as the accused. This requirement prevents purposeful exclusion based on race or other irrelevant characteristics and safeguards against arbitrary exercises of governmental power.
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Courts may consider whether an expert's theory or methodology has been subjected to peer review and publication when assessing reliability under Federal Rule of Evidence 702. The absence of such review is one factor that can support exclusion of the testimony.
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No. The term also appears in professional responsibility rules governing peer review agencies and in discovery disputes involving peer-review committee materials that may be protected from subpoena.
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…outlawed, or exiled, or any otherwise destroyed; nor will we not pass upon him, nor condemn him, but by lawful Judgment of his Peers, or by the Law of the Land."[^maj-17] Later English statutes reinforced and confirmed these basic freedoms. In 1350 a statute declared that "it is contained in the Great Charter of the…