NCJ Number
78708
Date Published
1979
Length
36 pages
Annotation
This report examines and makes recommendations on potential ways to modernize jury administration in Illinois, with particular attention to the 'one-day/one-trial' system used in several other States.
Abstract
Problems with most existing systems include the financial costs resulting from the inefficient use of jurors' time, financial and personal hardships on individual jurors, reduced quality of jury decisionmaking, and economic losses to society from lost productive time. Detroit and Houston have adopted the one-day/one-trial system in response to these problems. Under this system, individuals' jury duty is limited to either a single trial or to no more than 1 day in the courthouse if they are not selected to hear a trial on the day called to serve. Many of the techniques used by one-day/one-trial systems can be adopted with or without adopting a one-day/one-trial feature itself. Among techniques available to modernize jury administration are the use of multiple source lists for jurors, use of a mailed questionnaire to qualify jurors, use of double postcards for summoning qualified jurors, use of liberal deferrals along with few excusals, and computerized selection processes. Juror payrolls can be reduced by modification of impanelment procedures, use of standby jurors, and stricter trial scheduling. Other potential ways to increase efficiency include the use of standardized enrollment and orientation systems and use of a juror exit questionnaire. Any program of modernization in Illinois must include a reduction in the 2-week term of jury service. Both the one-day/one-trial system and the 'one-week' alternative used in DuPage County, Ill., have advantages and disadvantages. A uniform statewide plan for modernizing Illinois jury administration is not recommended. Instead, individual court systems should submit specific modernization plans to the State supreme court within 2 years. It is also recommended that a division be created within the administrative office of the Illinois courts to advise judicial circuits as they develop their own modernization plans. Footnotes with references and appendixes presenting data and a statute from Michigan are provided.