Court Change Could Be Costly for Jurors.

It's supposed to make jury service easier and more palatable for the thousands of people summoned to do it each week. If you don't get picked for a jury within a single day, you get dismissed--having fulfilled your civic duty for a full year.

No more hanging around for 10 days killing time while waiting to hear your name called.

But local jurors are finding out that the new "one-day, one-trial" system being phased in at courthouses is not so simple or so juror-friendly. The bottom line is, they could end up sacrificing wages or vacation time if they get picked for a trial that extends beyond the time covered by their employer.

"Look, if someone has to use a personal day or one or two days of vacation to fulfill their jury service, I don't consider that an extreme financial hardship," said Superior Court Judge Jacqueline Connor, who is also vice chair of the court's Grand Jury and Trial Jurors Committee. "It's when the employer pays for three days and the trial is scheduled to last for 20 days that I'd expect to see problems."

Thanks to new state codes, prospective jurors are no longer automatically excused if their employers don't pay for the full length of service. Now they have to prove they would "bear an extreme financial burden," such as an inability to make house or rent payments. And medical excuses may also require more proof than just a simple doctor's note.

"It used to be that when an employee indicated their employer did not pay for jury service, that was a valid excuse and they were dismissed," said Gloria Gomez, director of juror services for the Los Angeles Superior Court. "The burden is now on the juror to prove extreme financial hardship. Otherwise, they have to serve face a $1,500 fine."

Rollout in L.A.

Los Angeles is the last major county in the state to implement the one-day, one-trial reforms, which were enacted two years ago. The major reasons for the delay have been the sheer size of the county's court system, a lack of funds at the outset, and the preoccupation of court administrators in merging the county's municipal courts into the Superior Court.

As of last week, nine of the county's 57 court sites had been converted to one-day, one-trial. The rest of the sites are scheduled to be converted over the next two years, with the huge downtown courts coming last in early 2002.

The aim, of course, is to raise L.A. County's dismal juror participation rate, which at 12 percent is the lowest in the state and less than one-third' of the national average.

But the change in policy riled some jurors when they first found out about it. More than 20 complaints to a juror hotline came in each day after the process was implemented.

And at the Pasadena courthouse, one juror was so incensed that she verbally assaulted a court official, who had to call a bailiff to restrain her. That incident so concerned court administrators that they quickly changed the name of the "one-day, one trial system" to simply "one trial" to reduce the perception that jurors only have to report for one day.

While many employers pay for 10 or more days of jury service, about one-fourth of prospective jurors on any given day at the county criminal courthouse say their employers pay for just five or fewer days. And many employers don't pay for any jury service at all.

(On the flip side, major corporations like the Walt Disney Co. and virtually all government agencies pay their workers for an unlimited amount of time on jury duty, which is why jury panels often consist of a disproportionate number of government employees and retirees.)

Court officials say the average length of a trial is anywhere from three to seven days. Under the old system, which still prevails for the time being at the downtown courts and another 40 court sites around the county, officials say jurors are matched as closely as possible to trials that last about the number of days covered by their employers.

Mare diverse juries

Under the one-trial system, it's the unenviable task of judges to determine just what constitutes an undue financial hardship sufficient for dismissal. In instances when a juror might have to serve a couple days beyond their employer's pay policy, Connor said she would send the person back to their boss to request payment for the extra days. She said she already does this on a fairly regular basis when trials last longer than expected.

One local business official says employers should honor that request.

"If employers are willing to show a little flexibility when a juror is on a case that outlasts their pay policy, we'll have a huge payoff," said Jack Walker, a partner at the law firm of Latham & Watkins and the chairman of the government affairs committee for the L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce. "Juries will be more diverse, with more private-sector employees on them, and that will benefit employers when they have to use the justice system."

Of course, asking employers to pay for extra days could be problematic if a trial lasts five or 10 days longer than expected. In those instances, court officials say, judges would likely grant a juror's request to leave the panel -- provided they show extreme financial hardship -- and have an alternate juror step in.

The fear now is that employers will see references to "one-day, one-trial" and think all they have to pay for is one day of jury service. "If employers did this, then we'd really be in trouble," Judge Connor said.