Improving Jury Service
Last week I posted about serving on a Jury. While I had been called to jury duty numerous times it was my first time to actually serve on a jury. With a few exceptions the overall experience was very positive. It was great seeing strangers come together to determine if an accused is guilty or not-guilty. We all had other things to do but we all stepped up and did our duty as citizens.
But, as with everything, there is always room for improvement. The post caught the attention of Matt Murphy who commented they were looking for volunteers to offer suggestions for improvement to the process. I emailed him back and he sent me the following to post here:
Each year more than 5,000 city residents serve on a jury in Circuit Court. While it is true that many consider it an inconvenience, it is also true that jury duty is the cornerstone of our judicial system and it is one of the most important duties a citizen can perform for his/her country.
St. Louis Circuit Court is looking for some former jurors to volunteer their time to meet with Court officials and provide feedback on the jury duty experience (when and where will depend on the availability of the group.)
After listening to the group, the Court will use those ideas and suggestions to find areas for improvement – making the jury duty process as efficient and convenient as possible for all city residents.
If you are interested in being a part of this jury advisory group, please contact the Court’s public information officer, Matt Murphy at 622-5685 or by email at: mmurphy@courts.mo.gov
I’ve already told him I’d volunteer but I wanted to get the ball rolling online so here are my initial thoughts.
As mentioned in my prior post, Wi-Fi in the jury assembly room is a must. This would allow business persons (or anyone) to bring their laptop and continue working until called to be on a panel. On a previous time I spent two days there but was never called. The third morning we were released.
Having an area with computer tables with outlets goes hand in hand with working on the internet. Trying to use a laptop in the middle of a row of theater type seats is far from ideal. Access to outlets is important for longer periods.
While Wi-Fi would improve the waiting process, eliminating the wait is even better. My oldest brother lives in Alameda County in the San Francisco Bay area where they have a far better system (see website). The county is large both in terms of geography and population (nearly 1.5 million persons). They have six courthouses where jurors may be called to serve.
But when you receive a summons to serve you can log into a website to respond or request a different date. So you need not wait until you have time during the week to call to explain that you have a business trip that week – you can do so at 3am on a Sunday morning if that works best for your schedule. Â From this site you can also see when to report on the week you are to serve:
Instructions for Summoned Jurors
- Read the summons: The address, date and time of your appearance is written on the summons you were mailed. You may request to reschedule your jury service to a more convenient time by logging on to our E-juror website at https://ejuror.alameda.courts.ca.gov/. This website will also allow you to excuse yourself with limited conditions. No postponements or excuses will be granted on your day of appearance.
- Inform your employer: Your employer must allow you time off for jury duty. Employers cannot discharge an employee called for jury service as long as the employee gives reasonable notice of the summons.
- Call to receive reporting time. Your summons will have instructions directing you when to start calling to find out if you must report on your first day.
- Your day in court: Plan to attend court as a juror all day from approximately 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The time you are released will depend on the court’s schedule. Please dress appropriately. Shorts, tank tops or bare feet are not permissible.
So my brother and sister-in-law can check in with the court to see when they are to report. If it is Tuesday 10am then they can go to work on Monday and sleep in a bit on Tuesday. This system is web or phone based so it should work for everyone. Waiting is done at home, not in the court building.
This reduces the massive crowds of people all showing up at the same time. It also reduces the need for parking as jurors dates are shifted based on need. Perhaps courts in other parts of the country have an even better process but this is the slickest I’ve ever heard of.
So share your ideas below for Matt Murphy and others at the court to read. If you can, email him about volunteering on a citizen committee to suggest improvements. They have opened the door for suggestions so now it is up to us to tell them what we want.
Turn off the TVs on at least one of the floors. Many of us want to work or read and it’s difficult to do with mindless daytime TV droning on at high volume.
I’m a busy guy but I don’t so much mind getting called every 3 years. I usually see people I know that I don’t see very often (kind of like going to the polls). It certainly is a great equalizer. You can see everyone from the little old lady from the other side of the city, cab drivers, to multinational executives, local pols, and celebs.
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When I was called last February I was there for two days but was not seated on a jury. I made sure I got there early enough to claim a spot at a table in the non-smoking lounge near an outlet (I would have been miserable in one of those chairs). I was on a serious deadline for a project and was able to work on my laptop via an aircard (and spread out just a bit). A few others were doing the same. Outlets were at a premium but the lounge was not typically full. Since most people do not have aircards I would say wireless truly should be on the top of the list of added conveniences — especially since I assume it would involve so little expense. And now with the proliferation of iPhones that can pick up the internet via wifi instead of a mobile connection it would really be useful to those folks without having to drag in a laptop for simple boredom-reducing web browsing. Books and magazines work too.
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However, as you have pointed out Steve, using technology to simply reduce the time people have to actually be there would be the smartest thing they could do. People would feel like their time is much more respected instead of the constant drilling of “civic duty,” “necessary part of the process,” etc. I suspect fewer people would postpone, grumble, or try to outright shirk their “duty” and might just reduce costs.
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I must say, though, it can be a bit of bonding experience. I made a good friend that day that I never would have met otherwise. We have plans to go see a movie soon.
Went to jury duty a few months ago and overall it was a very positive experience. I had a scheduling conflict but the person was able to reschedule me with no problem. I spent two or three days in the jury pool and was able to work on a separate wi-fi (metro-wifi?).
It was a pretty positive experience and hearing some (not all) of the jurors talk was something like a Jerry Springer episode about why they either 1) hated the police, or 2) thought there was some sort of conspiracy…
By and large, I believe most of the jurors to be pretty unbiased, and that sort of discourse is absolutely necessary for a fair and impartial jury. Maybe if both the prosecutor and defenders office could write their questions down, the jury pool could spend the time answering the questions on paper, or on a computer terminal (to avoid handwriting mistakes, or have someone ask and enter the questions if they’re unable to).
Not only does it give us something to do (besides read the paper), but it may lessen the risk of poisoning the jury pool when someone makes a comment about their personal life experience, or take up additional time asking the judge for a side-bar.
On the whole process, I felt the judge was very professional and courteous and that everyone went out of their way to help speed along the process.
I liked jury duty the one time I served (I’ve been called and have waited a few times besides). Your suggestions here are very good–especially the “wait at home” idea. Being able to pick a better week was something that happened one time for me, after I was called and deferred a couple of times because I had an infant at home and was the sole care provider. Once I realized that this was a possibility for jurors, I wondered why it wasn’t offered sooner to an individual juror. Perhaps it’s a newer thing.
The other thing, just based on my own distrust of most large systems, is that it would be nice, if a juror is deferred, to get a response, even if it’s a phone message or email. I have written in with my reasons in the past (at the time, it was infant day care) and just hoped that I didn’t miss a further summons or something like that. It would be nice to get a notice that simply says, “we received your request and have granted it. Your name will be placed back into the pool, as you requested, starting in August 2010” or something along those lines.
I second the motion on the TV’s. No need to have them playing at such high volume. As for an wireless service, you folks better pony up, ’cause the City is b-r-o-k-e. Alameda Co. probably is a fairly wealthy entity vs. the City, and can thus afford a system as described above. I’m wondering if they were also able to get a partnership with one of the technology cos. in the region in order to bring the costs down. We’re talking about the costs of terminals, hard drives, routing equipment, cables/wiring, without even considering the cost for installation. Oh, and maybe they can stop the few numbers of City employees who smoke their cancer sticks in the basement/lower level area adjacent to the boiler room. Got a face and lung full as we were lead from the jury room building to the courtroom building. Otherwise, I’ve never had a bad experience as a member of the jury pool. Got a day off from work, got paid by my then-employer and the City, and got some much-needed reading in. I just wish that the area around the various courthouses wasn’t such a wasteland of plazas, too-wide streets, concrete, asphalt, and not a restaurant within several blocks. Just a whole lot of ugly. Fortunately, They generally allow enough time for lunch that I was able to walk to 10th Street Italian all three days I served on the jury. This last time was the only time I actually made it out of the pool to an actually working jury. Domestic. What an interesting time watching two people who are related to one another by marriage mess with the jury, the judge, the prosecutor, his counsel…good times.
Working vending machines would help. I could not get coffee. Very frustrating for the caffeine addicted.
I could not agree more about the wi-fi. I had to wait 2 days and was release the third. I ended up sitting on the floor by an outlet those two days, watching DVDs on my laptop. As a web designer I was able to do a little bit of work without internet but I could have been MUCH more productive with it.
Better yet is a solution that doesn’t involve waiting like that. I have a friend in LA and they, too, call in to see when they are needed. That’s a great idea. Chicago does a similar thing I’ve heard.
It was really frustrating to me because I feel like there must be a method to their number-calling. Surely they can predict that my number will be called after lunch or before lunch, narrow it down to a 2 hour window or something so that I don’t have to wait ALL DAY in that room.
Also I don’t think they do a very good job of explaining or marking the shuttle system to the garage. It seemed like they didn’t want people to know it was available.
Punish people who lie during the voir dire. I was the jury foreman for a murder trial a few years ago. We ended up with a hung jury when one of the jurors (a self-professed activist) said she would “never allow another young black man to go to prisonâ€.
We complained to the bailiff and he said there was nothing he could do.
Wi-Fi is a must and I would really appreciate a “no TV zoneâ€. I think the new waiting room is a huge improvement but a few little things could make it even more user friendly.
I have never been summoned for jury duty. But I know people who have been called upon a few times with a matter of years. Knowing a little about statitics that seems odd to me. I wonder what kind of random system they use to pick people to send letters to.
I shouldn’t complain, because I don’t think I could take two days of daytime TV. And the US government wouldn’t let me take my work with me.
Shuttle system to the garage? There’s a shuttle? Really?
CWEGuy commented that he ended up with a hung jury when one of the jurors (a self-professed activist) said she would “never allow another young black man to go to prisonâ€. Unfortunately, I had exactly the same experience – although, not a murder trial. Could this be a conspiracy, rather than a few self-professed activists?
One, instead of two large “cattle calls” a week. how about six or eight smaller ones? Have people show up for a half day, max, instead of, potentially, two days, before being selected or sent home? It would even out the staff’s workload and create less of an imposition on potential jurrors.
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Two, reduce crime levels in the city, or lacking that, get more aggressive in plea bargaining. Your odds of being called for jury duty in the county are less than half that of being called in the city, simply because we have so many trials occurring in the city and relatively-few non-criminal residents to fill juries!
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Three, merge the city and the county, to increase the available jury pool. (As if that’ll ever happen, and for exactly that reason.)
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Four, agreed, turn down the TV’s! Or at least provide quiet zones.
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Five, given that nearly everyone has a cell phone these days, figure out a simple way to call or text people who want some freedom from the “room”. Some restaurants do it now, so it ain’t rocket science. Or maybe they could use Twitter?
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Six, I may be a luddite, since I don’t own a laptop, so I could care less about power outlets or wi-fi. But given how technology is evoloving, my bet is that within a few years laptops will be the 8-tracks of mobile computing, being replaced i-phones and other cellular-based computing devices, rendering any city investments in wi-fi pretty worthless.
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And seven, if you need to be entertained while waiting, bring a book or some magazines or pen and paper or extra batteries – it’s not the court’s job to keep you occupied. Thinking (way?) back to my college days in the ’70’s, in the dorm we all shared one pay phone on each floor and one TV for the entire building, and we survived for semesters at a time. Going a day or two without a direct connection to the internets won’t kill anyone (plus the bailiffs confiscate all your electronic communication devices once deliberations start)!
The dorm for me in the 70s also provided one pay phone per floor and one tv for three floors. “Relatively-few non-criminal residents to fill juries”, excellent, funny and probably too true. My recommendation is redefine peers… maybe the jurists should be the ones already imprisoned?
If I recall, jurors are sworn in prior to going through the voir dire process. I find it hard to believe that, according to the bailiff, there was nothing they could do. Anytime any individual finds themselves confronted with idiots such as those mentioned above, bring it to the attention of THE JUDGE. Lying under oath is a criminal offense. I’ve heard of this type of movement. It initially started during the late 80’s, early 90’s, in the West as a protest by those wacko ZOG-hating militia types who thought the US gov’t was an illegitimate entity. Too complicated and ridiculous to go into. Needless to say, it’s obviously filtered into the rest of society. Still, considering that the murderers and war criminals George Bush and his equally traitorous assomplices Dick Cheney, et al, almost certainly will get off scott-free in our country (forget about going to Europe, guys; I know, as if), I’m not surprised that this misapplication of justice, though understandable when one takes into account the disproportionate number of incarcerated black men, is being applied in this fashion. This is what happens in our country, in my opinion, when those who occupy positions of power or higher status are not punished for the crimes they commit, or are accorded conditions which wouldn’t be considered for a lower-status criminal. Bernie Madoff gets house arrest? Puh-lease.
I’ve serve on jury this past summer. Showed day 1, called back and case settled on day 2 morning. Assigned a new case afternoon day 2 only to be settled on the morning of day 3.
I think the courts should institue a cut off time for the defendants/prosecutors. If you don’t settle your case by 5 p.m the night before, it goes to jury. None of this last minute haggling to see who is going to call someone’s bluff.
Both my husband and I have served in the last 18 mos. I made it onto a panel; my husband was on a jury for a criminal matter. We agreed that the pool of potential jurors was decent and the court personnel and judges were excellent. Wi-FI is an absolute must.
Other thoughts:
Attorneys used to not be eligible for jury service; now they are. I had to continue one of my own cases so I could sit through jury duty- so much for judicial efficiency. I don’t think practicing attorneys have any business on a jury; other jurors will automatically look to the atty for guidance and that is not fair to the parties.
Have you ever wondered what happens if you don’t show for jury duty? My husband was a no-show for three different jury pools; he had either been sent out of town on business or had production jobs that mandated his presence in the studio. He was called into “jury court” for his failures to appear. He acknowledged his bad and felt the process for dealing with the the no-shows was very fair- each no-show juror had to either pick a date to serve OR meet with the administrator to explain why he/she couldn’t or wouldn’t be willing to serve. Those who picked a new date were sent on their way; the “I won’t serve” crowd had to wait in a long line to explain their position to a judge.
In summary: get wi-fi, get rid of attorneys on jury panels and keep up the good work.
I have jury duty coming up. Based on your all feedback, I can bring in a laptop and work while waiting. Correct? Better than having nothing.
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To make jury duty better don't make people serve who don't want to. If I was on trial I would hate to have some guy who can't wait to get out of there deciding my fate! People who don't want to serve should go to sites like http://www.avoidjuryduty.com to get out of it. They aren't helping anybody by serving.