Verdict’s In on Jury Pay Raise

California jurors haven’t received a pay raise since 1957. The $5 the state pays for a day’s service makes California the chintziest in the nation. Twice before, attempts to raise the stipend have failed. Now another proposal, to increase compensation to $12, has come before the lawmakers. With the state’s budget in good shape, this one should pass.

The issue has gained urgency under a 1998 legislative mandate reducing the traditional 10 days of jury service. The new system, requiring jurors to serve just one day unless they are assigned to a trial, puts heavy pressure on court officials to produce a new herd of prospective jurors daily. As a result, judges have become much more hardhearted in scrutinizing medical and economic excuses. Moreover, in Los Angeles County jurors are already grappling with a new summons form so dense that even some judges can’t make sense of it. The form is designed to facilitate the one-day, one-trial program for the 4.5 million prospective jurors contacted annually, but it is so complex it is already in its fourth revision--with more to come. In this context, raising jurors’ pay even by a measly $7 is an important gesture indicating that the state values, and needs, their service.

New York pays its jurors $40 a day, Virginia pays $30 and several states pay between $15 and $25. The $12 daily rate for California jurors, proposed by Assemblywoman Carole Migden (D-San Francisco), is merely a step in the right direction. Midgen’s bill is now before the Senate Appropriations Committee, having passed the Assembly last session. Gov. Gray Davis, who supports the measure, has included the necessary $12.6 million in his proposed budget.

Apparently only the legislative analyst’s office has hesitations, on the grounds that the proposed hike sends too small a message to jurors at too great a cost to the state. But deciding once again to hold juror pay to $5 a day also would send a message, and not the sort that would cause people to flock to this civic duty.