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It's Jury Service, Not Duty: Strategies for Promoting Participation in the Civil Justice Sytem
By The DRI Jury Service Taks Force
Many elements of jury service have changed since Harper Lee published To Kill a Mockingbird. For one, women and minorities now serve on juries. In the past, women, African Americans and members of other racial and ethnic groups were excluded from jury service. A series of Supreme Court cases mandated otherwise, and today’s jury pools are more inclusive. However, other factors present continuous challenges to the jury system. In recent years the rate of civil jury trials has steadily declined in favor of alternative dispositions such as summary judgments and settlements.2 While the causes of the decline in jury trials are many, the role of the jury itself cannot be overlooked. To the extent that jury service is undervalued or misunderstood by participants and the public, undervaluation or misunderstanding can serve as both a cause and a symptom of the decline in jury trials and devaluation of jury service.
While the task of reversing hundreds of years of misperceptions is beyond our reach, the DRI Jury Service Task Force set out to inquire about the state of jury service in this country and the prospects for improvement. Happily, the task force found that many organizations have studied and researched jury service issues and that innovations likely to increase understanding of the value of jury service are underway.
DRI embraces the proposition that maintaining a well-functioning jury system is vital to preserving public confidence in the civil justice system as a means of resolving intractable disputes. It behooves defense lawyers to address the stresses on the jury system.
As most aspects of jury service are based on state law, innovation and reform to increase jury service begins mainly at that level. DRI’s Jury Service Task Force encourages defense attorneys, through state and local defense organizations (SLDOs), to promote jury service across jurisdictions, by offering concrete recommendations to increase jury service participation and foster value of the jury system. In this paper, the task force offers suggestions for projects that state and local defense organizations can undertake to increase public understanding of the importance of the jury to the American legal system. Such projects can improve the response rate of those summoned to serve and highlight the value placed on their service. This paper also collects information about resources available to further examine the uniquely legal and uniquely human issues surrounding jury service. Click on the link below to download a copy of this paper.
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