November - Jury Service Awareness Month
The survey of Texas voters found that most – nearly 90 percent – believe serving on a jury is an important right, and 87 percent say jury no-shows hurt our civil justice system.
About 65 percent of those summoned in Travis, Williamson and Hays counties do not report for jury service; between 5 percent and 10 percent of those summoned blatantly ignore their summons. In some Texas counties, 80 percent do not report for jury service when summoned.
About 90 percent of those surveyed said Texans should be held accountable for ignoring a jury summons. A majority support stronger sanctions against no-shows, including increasing the maximum fine (now $100-$1,000) for failure to report for jury duty (54 percent) and suspending the driver’s license of repeated jury service no-shows (51 percent).
“Jury service is one of the best weapons we have against lawsuit abuse,” said Bobby Jenkins, CALA of Central Texas Board Member. “Every citizen can do his or her part to bring fairness and balance to the civil justice system by serving on a jury when called.
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2010