Fla. Supreme Court: Everyone Into the Pool
State's high court wants to know why residents are no-shows when summoned for possible jury duty
Dan Christensen
Miami Daily Business Review
01-03-2005
Complaints by litigants and lawyers about the increasing difficulty of impaneling enough jurors to address complex criminal and civil cases have led Florida's top court to ask the public how to improve the state's jury system.
Besides examining juror shortages and trial scheduling problems, the high court wants to hear about the experiences of jurors themselves.
"We want to see if there's something we can do to improve the conditions of jury service," Florida Supreme Court Justice R. Fred Lewis said in an interview last month.
On Jan. 19, Lewis will be at the Hyatt Regency in Miami to attend an unprecedented public hearing seeking input from lawyers and others about their experiences with the state's jury system. The hearing, to run from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., is sponsored by the state Supreme Court's work group on standards for jury pool size. It will be held in conjunction with the Florida Bar's mid-year meeting.
Florida's performance at mustering jurors is dismal. Nationally, 40 percent of those summoned for jury duty show up at the courthouse. But only 30 percent answer the call in Florida, according to information from the state court administrator's office.
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