Prospectie jury may be 'polled' by Jayant Patel's defence counsel before they can be empanelled JAYANT Patel's manslaughter trial will proceed as scheduled next week but in a Queensland first a prospective jury may be "polled" by the former Bundaberg surgeon's defence counsel before they can be empanelled. Supreme Court Justice George Fryberg on Thursday upheld an application by Crown prosecutor Peter Davis SC seeking leave to deliver a further set of particulars outlining how the prosecution case would be run. The application was opposed by Patel's legal counsel because of the absence of a "causal link" between what may have been pre-existing comorbidities and the subsequent death of Mr Morris following surgery. But Justice Fryberg ruled the disputed paragraphs sufficiently detailed the linkage to the extent it was "implicit" and would not result in a trial that was unfair to the accused. Four separate sets of legal particulars have already been filed in the lead-up to trial, the latest on January 11 after Patel's defence counsel successfully applied to have a third set struck out in December. Patel's defence counsel on Wednesday filed an objection to evidence application to the court, which was listed to proceed on Monday, February 4, before the trial begins. A further hearing relating to the objection of evidence from two expert witnesses was listed for Tuesday, February 5. Barrister Kenneth Fleming QC, for Patel, indicated the defence counsel could make an application for prospective jury members to be "polled" ahead of empanelment on Wednesday, February 6. Justice Fryberg said any such application would have to be served and filed by this afternoon. Mr Davis said "polling" of a jury to determine what they knew about a case ahead of trial had never been done before in Queensland. "It all sounds very LA Law, but there you go," he said. Patel's application for a judge-only trial was refused last year. Queensland's office of public prosecutions faced criticism when the High Court last year quashed Patel's three prior convictions for manslaughter because the Crown radically changed its case late in the original trial. Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie had until January 25 to lodge an appeal against Justice Fryberg's earlier ruling for the particulars to be amended on January 18 but no such appeal was made.