The Price Tag of Jury Reform

Twenty-one California counties require prospective jurors to serve just a single day unless they are chosen for a trial. Gov. Gray Davis’ new budget provides $1.2 million to help extend this reform to eight additional counties that had asked for help. Unfortunately, because Los Angeles County moved too slowly, it probably won’t get a penny of this money.

Prospective jurors here and elsewhere are clearly fed up with the old model of jury service, which requires they cool their heels for as long as 10 days in overcrowded jury assembly rooms. In L.A. County, just 6% of those who receive a juror questionnaire report for service. Until just a few months ago, county officials had insisted that this dismayingly low response prevented Los Angeles from embracing the one-day, one-trial service model. To accommodate trial courtrooms under a revised system, they said, the courts would need more people, not fewer, reporting each day.

But prodded in part by a new state law establishing one-day, one-trial as the state standard by next January, the Los Angeles courts announced last month that they will try to make the system work. Beginning in May, the Pomona and Pasadena branches will move to a modified one-day, one-trial model. The hope is to extend this reform throughout the county by the start of next year.

Meeting that target would be expensive. The estimated $1 million to upgrade computer and telephone facilities as well as to redesign juror summons forms will have to come out of the court’s existing budget. Extending the program countywide could cost as much as $15 million. And that doesn’t include funds to renovate and expand the worst jury assembly rooms.

To make one-day, one-trial work here, court officials will need state help. That means they and the new governor will need to work together to ensure there’s money for a Los Angeles County conversion in next year’s budget.