Art. 1766.Time For Challenges; Method

Article 1766 walks through the mechanics of challenging a juror in order. After a prospective juror has been examined under Article 1763, the court may excuse that juror on its own; if the court does not, either side may challenge for cause. If the juror survives that stage, any party may then exercise a peremptory challenge, with the court alternating between the sides as it asks each in turn whether it wants to strike that juror. Once the entire jury has been accepted and sworn, the right to challenge peremptorily ends.

Paragraph D governs how a peremptory challenge gets made: not out loud in open court, but in a side-bar conference among the judge, the attorneys conducting the voir dire, and any self-represented plaintiff or defendant. The conference happens on the record but out of the prospective jurors' presence, and the challenges made there stay confidential — known only to the court, the attorneys, and any pro se party — until the court announces the results without identifying which party or attorney struck which juror. That confidentiality is meant to keep prospective jurors from associating a particular side with having struck them, preserving the jury pool's neutrality toward the parties.