Talesman Law and Legal Definition
Talesman refers to a person summoned as one of the tales under a writ of tales. A talesman is selected from among the bystanders in a court to serve as a juror in a civil or criminal case. S/he is added to a jury to make up a deficiency in the available number of jurors. Talesman includes both grand and petit jurors.
In State v. Creech, 38 La. Ann. 480 (La. 1886), the court held that the very nature and essence of talesmen are that they are legal substitutes for the regular venire, when the latter is exhausted by challenges, by the absence of members thereof, or when a portion of the same is empanelled and actually engaged on another case.
