Dallas Business Journal, June 2, 2006

Law firm says move could boost jury pools

Lawyers in the Dallas office of law firm Vinson & Elkins L.L.P. already successfully pushed to raise jury pay from $6 to $40 a day. That was the carrot.

Now, the stick: The firm is weighing what law would best deter prospective jurors from repeatedly failing to show up for jury duty.

Among the options they're considering pushing for is a law that would suspend the drivers' licenses of individuals who repeatedly fail to show.

Texas judges can order deputies to pick up those who repeatedly don't attend for jury duty. Judges also can fine individuals $10 to $1,000 for refusing to show. Few, if any, actually do so, because there are usually enough bodies to fill a jury box.

Unfortunately, most of those bodies belong to older, white residents, though Dallas County is becoming more ethnically diverse, according to the firm.

The law firm looked at 71,697 Dallas County juror records over five years and found that 77% of those appearing for jury duty were older, white citizens, compared to the general adult population which is 20% black and 30% Hispanic, according to 2000 U.S. Census Data.

The census also shows that the county's median age is 31 and that those 65 and older comprise only 8% of the population.

Vinson & Elkins contends that the jury pools far from satisfy the U.S. Constitution and the Supreme Court, which mandate that jury pools must represent a cross-section of the community. The law firm's study found one of the root causes to be a lack of jury pay and employer support, as well as ineffective efforts to reach out to prospective jurors, including enforcing jury duty laws.

More flexibility

"There has to be some reasonably tough enforcement," said Vinson & Elkins partner Rob Walters. He said many court administrators are allowing more flexibility for scheduling of jury duty but, at some point, jury duty is just that.

The punishment "could be in the way of a parking ticket or a traffic citation," Walters said. Or the law could suspend drivers' licenses until the individuals serve jury duty, he said. The 2007 session of the Texas Legislature likely will see Vinson-backed legislation along those lines.

The law firm will study the composition of jury pools to determine what impact raising jury pay from $6 to $40 per day -- the first increase since 1954 -- has on jury pools. The pay raise took effect Jan. 1.

Afterward, it will implement a second phase of its jury diversification project, which as well as a push for more effective teeth for jury laws, includes informational Spanish-language media ads, a jury-diversification summit, and incorporating a court that would deal specifically with jury duty scofflaws.

So far, Vinson & Elkins has committed 6,600 hours to the pro-bono project.

The main effort is to diversify jury pools, said Mark Curriden, who handles media relations for Vinson & Elkins.

"If people walk into court as a party in a case, and they look around a courtroom and they don't see anyone like themselves, then public confidence is undermined, especially in Dallas and Houston, where you have at least one-third of the county's population being Latino and only one in 10 people showing up for jury duty being Latino," he said.

Dave Moore can be reached at dmoore@bizjournals.com | 214-706-7112