It is the letter that so many Californians dread: a jury obligation summons that warns you to reply and present up or face fines and even jail time.
However are the courts finishing up these threats, and are they even efficient at getting individuals to indicate up?
CBS Information California Investigates correspondent Julie Watts got down to be taught what actually occurs in the event you dodge jury obligation. What she discovered was shocking.
When Matt Spratt was summoned for jury obligation, it was greater than an inconvenience for him — his spouse, Maria, lives with Parkinson’s illness and was dwelling alone whereas he was on the courthouse.
Spratt additionally thought he needed to seem. Jury summons letters state that you’re “required by regulation” to reply. On the subject of jury obligation dodging, it seems that these three phrases could not imply a lot. Â
CBS Information California analyzed final yr’s jury obligation knowledge from the Judicial Council of California, which comes from an optionally available questionnaire the council sends to courts yearly.
Out of the state’s 58 counties, 44 actively observe up with individuals who fail to seem for jury obligation, in accordance with the information. Amongst these 44 counties, 23 ship follow-up notices to residents, 22 could order the individual to seem in courtroom to elucidate their absence, six could sanction and 10 could maintain individuals in contempt. Some counties do a mix of those choices.
Whereas most courts make threats, about 21% admit they do not sanction in any respect, that means residents in these areas face no penalties for skipping jury obligation. Amongst these counties are Amador, Lake, Mariposa, Mendocino, Modoc, Plumas, San Benito, San Diego, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Sierra and Sonoma.
The online impact is that greater than 2.7 million Californians failed to seem for a jury summons final yr out of roughly 10.6 million that have been summoned, that means one out of 4 individuals merely did not present up. Additionally of be aware, 7.5%, or greater than 800,000, of all jury summons final yr have been undelivered, in accordance with the information.
“I believe it is a failure of the system,” stated prison protection lawyer Alexandra Kazarian.
Kazarian defends high-profile purchasers alongside Mark Geragos, together with the Menendez brothers and the girl charged in “Associates” star Matthew Perry’s loss of life. She stated jury dodgers might rob individuals of a good trial with a jury of their friends and thinks courts must crack down.
CBS Information California discovered that, whereas a handful of counties threaten fines starting from $40 to $2,000, solely six of these counties truly observe up with the jurors to start with: Fresno, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Shasta and Yolo.
“It’s essential to focus sources on truly telling individuals, ‘Look, this can be a enormous deal,’ and begin issuing failures to seem similar to you do with visitors tickets,” Kazarian stated.
Los Angeles Superior Courtroom jury commissioner David Slayton stated they’ll subject fines as excessive as $1,000 in some circumstances. However this previous yr, 4 out of 5 jury obligation dodgers confronted no punishment.
As a substitute, Slayton tries to make serving extra interesting by providing incentives, saying the courtroom is “attempting to stability this subject of not being too heavy-handed, but additionally ensuring that individuals present up.”
Incentives embody providing free public transit passes, putting in charging stations for cellular units and making jury rooms extra comfy.
“It is type of attempting to make use of the carrot greater than the stick, however clearly, when we have to use extra accountability, we are able to try this,” Slayton stated.
We discovered the same method at San Francisco Superior Courtroom, the place jury commissioner Jacqueline LaPrevotte stated they do not subject fines for jury obligation dodging.
“Surprisingly, it might truly be an astronomical price,” LePrevotte stated.
As a substitute, they pay the jurors who do present up. The San Francisco courtroom ran a pilot program paying jurors $100 a day as an alternative of the usual $15 and located that the additional cash eliminated limitations to serving, particularly for low-income jurors. This led to fewer failures to seem, a extra numerous jury pool, and elevated participation amongst those that face monetary challenges.
This system was so profitable that the state expanded it to different counties. Nonetheless, a couple of months in the past, the governor pulled the funding.
“I’ll say the burden mustn’t solely be on the state,” LaPrevotte stated.
Whereas employers in California are required to provide you day off for jury obligation, they do not should pay you. LaPrevotte believes that should change.
“Hopefully, laws sooner or later can deal with forcing employers of a sure measurement to pay their staff for jury obligation. It’s going to preserve these individuals coming within the door to serve and keep truthful entry to justice.
Within the meantime, jury containers are full of individuals who can afford to lose days of earnings — usually retirees like Spratt.
“All people’s received their very own feeling of civic accountability, and that is in all probability declining,” he stated.
