Van Nuys Puts New Jury Duty System on Trial

There was a time when Glenda Biersbach dreaded jury duty.

“It used to be just horrible,” said the Van Nuys secretary, who has served five times in the past.

“You get there and you wait. You wait and wait and wait and wait” for up to two weeks in the “stuffy” jury assembly room, Biersbach said. “You feel like you couldn’t get air.”

But Monday, the first day of the new “One Trial” jury system in Van Nuys, Biersbach was all smiles as she walked out of the courthouse into the late afternoon fresh air, having fulfilled her civic duty after just one day of service.

“This is really nice to be able to do it this way,” she said.

Biersbach was among the 160 to 170 jurors who were the first to experience the new One Trial jury service program in the Los Angeles County Superior Court’s Van Nuys Division.

Van Nuys is not the first in the county to begin the program. But because it is the second biggest district of the massive court system and the largest so far to be converted, its experience is being closely watched, jurists and court administrators said. Other courts across the county that now operate One Trial jury programs include San Fernando, Newhall, Lancaster, Pomona and Pasadena.

Streamlining Jury Service

At its core, the One Trial program is designed to streamline jury service and make life easier for those who show up for their call to duty.

Under Van Nuys’ old system, which is still used in many courthouses in Los Angeles County, jurors were expected to sit in a courthouse for up to two weeks, even if they were not put on a jury, or to serve on call for up to three weeks.

Now, Van Nuys jurors are on call for five days.

On the day they are told to appear in court, unless they are being screened for trial, or are chosen for a trial by the end of that day, jury duty is complete.

“It just seems more organized. If you don’t get picked, you leave,” said Kym Wenborg, a 40-year-old network engineer from Van Nuys, after he finished his jury duty.

When the program began last May in Pasadena, the court staffs there were overwhelmed with masses of angry, frustrated or just downright confused people--in part because too many were asked to show up, in part because jurors hadn’t received clear instructions on what to do, court administrators said.

Many arrived on the wrong day because they hadn’t understood the instructions. People who expected to dodge service by pleading financial hardship were shocked to learn that the court is cracking down on such excuses. Things got so tense in the jury assembly room in Pasadena that a bailiff had to be stationed there.

But the program overall has improved over time, court administrators said. New forms and automated phone messages now instruct people more clearly. More people have been hired to deal with the greater volume of jurors that the new system requires.

For the most part, things ran smoothly Monday in Van Nuys.

“As each district has gotten it, we’ve learned through trial and error,” said Michael Paul McCullough, assistant court manager for Van Nuys.

Additional Work Created for Staff

At the San Fernando Courthouse, which converted several weeks ago, an initial “miscommunication” led too few jurors to show up, said Superior Court Judge William MacLaughlin. But that problem has been resolved.

Now, MacLaughlin said, “it’s going quite well.”

“It’s a great advance for persons called as jurors,” MacLaughlin said. “It gives much more clarity and certainty to their jury service.”

But the program is also creating more work for the court system. Van Nuys used to have two employees in the jury assembly room; now it has four. Under the new system, judges must “order” jurors by midafternoon for the next day, said Michael J. Farrell, supervising judge at Van Nuys. Judges can’t always predict their need by that time, and if a courtroom suddenly opens up during the day, judges may not be able to make use of it if there aren’t enough jurors, Farrell said.

The new program is here to stay, though. It is mandated by state law.

Los Angeles County, which has the largest jury system in the world, has until January 2002 to convert fully to the new system.

“It’s a change in a long-established system,” McCullough said. “It’s going to be difficult for everybody . . . but we’ll work it out.”