Washington Courts: Judicial News Report Detail

Seattle Municipal Court shows appreciation: Jury Awareness Initiative

Jury summons.

Those words printed on an envelope can cause a heart to skip a beat.

But for some,it is more like a "thud" than a skipped beat when the realization dawns they may have to manage without a paycheck while on jury duty. The employer’s decision to compensate or withhold paychecks from citizen jurors often makes the difference between engaged and motivated jurors, and reluctant or absent ones.

To express appreciation to those companies that recognize the importance of jury service by continuing employees’ salary benefits when they serve on juries, the Municipal Court of Seattle recently created its Corporate Citizenship Award, a permanent, commemorative display, mounted in the main lobby of the Public Safety Building in downtown Seattle. The display was unveiled October 20, 1997 by Presiding Judge Judith Hightower and City of Seattle Deputy Mayor Bruce Brooks.

This year, the names of 184 companies were inscribed on the award, firms identified by employees who served as jurors during the past year. In succeeding years, additional organizations will be added to the commemorative display. The display and award is a way for the court and city government to acknowledge companies that help employees meet their individual responsibilities as citizens, without having to endure financial hardship.

These awards are just one element of the court’s on-going jury awareness initiative, a program designed to increase juror summons yield, and improve the comfort and treatment of jurors who serve the court. For sitting jurors, the court provides health club access, updates on downtown activities, art gallery and general walking maps, pagers, and personal computer modem ports in the jury assembly area.

Even before they get to court, prospective jurors can use public television to familiarize themselves with jury procedure or download juror orientation material from the court’s Internet web site. The court also plans to initiate a bus advertising campaign to promote jury service, and is working with a volunteer group to enhance jury facilities.

Since 1994, when a new jury service list procedure was implemented to increase the number of prospective jurors, the percentage of refusals to report has sharply increased. In 1996, the court sent out 20,673 summons, a mailing that netted fewer than 5,663 prospective jurors (27%) (factoring out returned mail, no response, and exemptions), of which only 3,237 (16%) actually appeared for jury service. This low return rate impacted the court two ways--it affected its budget but, more importantly, it required the court to spend extra time to summon more citizens to ensure balanced and diverse jury pools for trials. The experience of our court is similar to that of King County Superior Court, which is experiencing a comparable, low yield rate.

The problem of citizens who refuse to report for jury service is not limited to the state of Washington. During a recent jury management training conference, one participant told of going to a K-Mart parking lot to find jurors for a trial. Some states assign community service hours, issue contempt of court charges, or place holds on driver’s licenses of jury service "scofflaws".

Though we summon individuals to appear and explain why they did not report for jury service, our court prefers to emphasize the importance of citizen involvement in the jury process. We hope this more positive approach will enhance the yield and avoid the negative consequences of sanctions. Removing the indirect sanction of lost wages is one way to make jury service a more positive experience.

The court hopes its corporate awards program will encourage more employers to step forward in support of their employees. When jury summons’ are received in the future, it is also hoped that hearts will skip a beat, not in fear, but in anticipation of serving in the best justice system in the world.

Klimusko has been the administrator of Seattle’s municipal court since 1995. Prior to that, he was clerk/administrator of Bakersfield Municipal Court in California.