COURT WATCH : The Jury’s Still Out

Last October, the Los Angeles Superior Court reduced the term of jury service throughout the county from 10 days to five days or one trial and reduced as well its pools of prospective juries. The two moves were welcome and overdue. Jury service in Los Angeles’ far-flung and crowded courtrooms left too many public-spirited citizens feeling more resentful than ennobled.

So the court’s decision this week to institute a requirement of 10 days or one trial, come October, is an acknowledgment of partial defeat. There was too much confusion, say court officials, about how the five-day rule worked. Specifically, many jurors focused on serving just five days even when a trial begun during the five-day period extended longer. Planned vacations and long-scheduled doctor’s appointments too often preempted trial service.

In addition, many employers scaled back the number of paid days they permitted employees for jury service. Ironically, the increasing unwillingness of employers to subsidize jury service for a 10-day term was one factor in the court’s decision last year to cut the term.

The crunch mainly affects trials that last from five to seven days; judges often found themselves with too few prospective jurors. The court expects the term of 10 days or one trial to remedy the problem, even with the smaller jury pools.

But shorter terms have worked elsewhere, including several Southern California counties. We hope the court gives this worthwhile experiment another try, after working the bugs out.