Financial hardship claims on the rise for jurors across the U.S.

Few people like jury duty. But for many people squeezed by the recession, a jury summons holds a new fear: financial ruin.
Judges and court officials around the country say they are seeing the impact of the recession in their courtrooms. While no one keeps overall statistics on juror excuses, those closest to the process say that in many parts of the country an increasing number of jurors are trying to get out of service, forcing courts to call an ever larger pool of jurors to meet their needs.
Ranae Johnson, the jury commissioner for Bonneville County, Idaho, said that she typically summoned 400 people for each two-week term of service, but that lately she “had to pop it up to 500” because of rising numbers of economic hardship claims. “We’re hearing it more than we used to,” Ms. Johnson said. “A lot more.”
“Most people, when they’re called for jury duty, assume if they are going to be on a trial, it’s going to be a long trial,” said Shari Seidman Diamond, a law professor at Northwestern University. In fact, Professor Diamond said, the typical trial takes just two or three days, and in many jurisdictions jurors are dismissed after one day if they are not placed on a jury. Longer cases prompt greater efforts to head for the exits, said Douglas L. Keene, a trial consultant in Austin, Tex. Those who are unemployed “can’t afford to not be out there looking for a job,” Mr. Keene said. And despite laws that protect jurors from being fired for their service, he said, people whose companies have gone through rounds of layoffs worry about the impact on them of several days away from the office. Fretful or angry jurors are a concern for plaintiffs’ lawyers in civil suits, Mr. Keene said, because the plaintiffs brought the suit and “are more likely to be blamed by the jurors for any inconvenience that jury duty caused them.”

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/02/us/02jury.html?_r=1&ref=us