System of Choice May Improve Perception of Jury Duty

Automation can pay your bills, keep your home or office comfortable, and answer your phone, but can it improve the public’s experience of jury duty? District courts across the country think it will.

The Jury Management System (JMS), a Windows-based software application, automates nearly every aspect of a court’s contact with jurors. Over 80 district courts across the country are using the software to maintain their master jury wheels, randomly select jurors, print and scan qualification questionnaires, print jury summonses, construct jury seating charts, track attendance and juror status, and when interfaced with the court’s financial system, make the calculations needed to pay jurors on time. They also use JMS to produce data and statistical reports. Those functions make JMS attractive to court staff who need an easy system to manage the process. But can JMS make jury duty a better experience for jurors?

"In short, yes," says Larry Baerman, clerk of court for the Northern District of New York. "The operations involved in running the court’s jury system are quite complex and time consuming. JMS helps to make your internal jury operation more efficient. This in turn allows the jury office to spend more time focusing on improving communication with jurors, improving juror orientations, and helping the public make the most of their jury experience."

JMS, according to Susan Durst, jury administrator for the District
of Maine, is "sort of invisible to jurors." What the public gets, thanks to JMS, is a more efficient process. For example, when jurors call with questions, the juror ID numbers issued by JMS let staff pull up the information on a computer screen in no time. "This time of year, JMS is especially useful," says Durst, "because it makes tax information available at the tip of our fingers.
I can print out in 30 seconds how much a juror was paid for attendance and mileage." JMS also provides judges with accurate and up-to-the-minute information on a court’s jury system. "If a judge wants to impose jury costs in a trial," says Baerman, "the jury office can calculate the exact cost in JMS in a matter of minutes."

Deployment of JMS was completed in July 2001, but modifications and enhancements to the system are being made as needed. Most recently, the Judicial Conference Committee on Court Administration and Case Management approved a revised juror qualification questionnaire for the JMS. The revisions changed typeface and ink color on the questionnaire—admittedly, cosmetic changes—but changes that made the questionnaire easier to read. Other changes to the race and ethnicity questions previously approved by the Judicial Conference reflect revisions the Census Bureau made to allow multiracial responses on its own census questionnaire.

"The answer to how we are doing with the public can be found in our jury exit questionnaires," says Baerman. "Jurors often comment that they would love to have the opportunity to serve again. Based on the responses, I know we are doing an excellent job. And JMS is one of the tools that has helped us to make significant improvements."