Less Time in the Jury Gulag

A new study finds that the more often citizens serve as jurors, the more fair-minded they become in deciding cases. That’s a good thing since nearly all courthouses in Los Angeles have cut back juror service to one day or one trial, so jurors will be called back again and again.

The annual survey by the National Law Journal and DecisionQuest, a jury consulting firm, found that “people with prior jury service tended to be more neutral and less favorable toward one [party] or the other.” They are, say the survey’s authors, “more familiar with the idea that another side of the story may be coming.” In civil cases, the poll suggests that repeat jurors are less likely than first-time jurors to be initially biased in favor of the plaintiff. Jurors who have heard a criminal trial understand that if a defendant chooses not to take the stand in his own defense, he may not necessarily be hiding something.

The survey drew from a national sample of respondents, more than half of whom had already been called to jury duty. The findings hold a heartening message for the Los Angeles Superior Court as it moves closer to ending the onerous 10-day term of jury service in favor of the one-day-or-one-trial system, used successfully in other states and counties.

Courts here had a hard enough time filling their jury boxes before the one-trial system started. Court administrators in L.A. County feared the one-trial system, fretting that if prospective jurors weren’t assigned to a case their first day and got to go home there wouldn’t be enough bodies to keep trials going. But state law required the change, and courts in the other 57 counties have since complied.

In January 2000, the Los Angeles court began the massive shift as well, starting with the smaller suburban courthouses. By the end of this month, the gargantuan downtown civil and criminal courthouses are supposed to have made the change to one day or one trial.

Here’s the catch: The court will need an estimated 10,000 jurors each day to keep its docket moving. That means every eligible citizen in the county can expect to be summoned for jury duty every year. We think that’s still a better deal for local citizens than serving those 10 days in the jury gulag, with soap operas droning and jigsaw puzzles sprawling and people humming to personal CD players, adding to the excruciating torment of forced mass boredom. If the law journal survey is any indication, those repeat jurors are likely to do a better job each time.