County Court to Cut Jury Duty Requirement From 10 to 5 Days

In a break with precedent sure to bring smiles to most folks, San Diego County court officials have announced plans to cut jury service from 10 to five working days beginning in August.

Superior Court judges approved the change earlier this week, officials said Friday. Judges at the county’s four municipal courts had given the go-ahead in recent weeks, officials said.

The votes make San Diego the first urban court jurisdiction in the state to cut jury service to five days, said Ken Martone, San Diego Superior Court executive officer. Both jurors and employers, who usually pay workers serving on jury duty, should be happy with the change, officials said.

“The courts have always been so appreciative of the fact that most businesses in San Diego County pay their employees their normal wages while they serve as jurors,” said Gerry Stevens, the county’s assistant jury commissioner.

“Knowing the economic hardship that everybody in San Diego seems now to be faced with, I think it was the intent of the courts to try to reduce the days of service, making jury service, hopefully, more palatable to employers and employees,” Stevens said.

Court officials said it will take at least half a year to sort out the effect of the change in the system.

The county calls more than 300,000 people a year for jury service, all randomly drawn from a list put together from driver’s license and voter rolls, Stevens said.

When the change takes effect Aug. 3, those called will still have to report to one of the county’s four courthouses--in Vista, El Cajon, Chula Vista or San Diego--for one full day of duty, she said.

Those people not picked to hear a case will be put on telephone stand-by, just as now, Stevens said. The difference, she said, is that their availability will stop after five days instead of 10.

Anyone tabbed to hear a case will still have to serve until that case concludes, no matter how long it takes, Stevens said.

And if, for example, someone is picked on the first day of service for a case that lasts two days, that person still owes the county three days, either at the courthouse or on telephone stand-by, Stevens said.

For each day of service, the county pays jurors $5. It also pays 15 cents per mile--but only one way. In fiscal year 1992, which ends June 30, the county projects costs of $1.8 million for jury service fees, Martone said.