Mayor Riordan on Jury Duty

Mayor Richard Riordan’s plea for business to extend the duration of pay to employees for time spent on jury duty (Oct. 22-23) points up the fact that some jurors are more equal than others. Those of us who are self-employed, or whose employers are not so generous, feel pressures that those who are getting their usual paychecks are spared.

On the last jury on which I served, there were several who smugly allowed that they were receiving full pay from their employers. Not surprisingly, these jurors were the ones least anxious to bring the discussions to a close, and a simple criminal case took several weeks to decide. These folks seemed to enjoy their quasi-vacation much more than those of us who were on our own time.

My proposal is the converse of the mayor’s: Discourage employers from paying for jury duty at all. If everyone on the jury is getting the same five bucks per day, it might accelerate the wheels of justice, and ease the pressures our courts are facing.

ROBERT E. GOYETTE

Rolling Hills Estates

* The mayor’s efforts would be better spent looking for ways to limit the number of days that a trial can take. No human being can digest everything that is being said during a six-month period. Requiring the prosecution and defense to consolidate their presentations, to say 40 hours each, would actually facilitate the digestion of all important facts by a jury.

Of course at $200-plus per hour our lawyers have a vested interest in dragging things out for as long as they can.

IVAR SCHOENMEYR

San Juan Capistrano