Serving on a Jury is an Important Responsibility

Jury service is an important civic duty that can be a rewarding experience for everyone involved. For the individual, jury service is an excellent opportunity for people to get involved in their community and become more intelligent legal consumers.
But perhaps more importantly, the jury service process is a crucial path for ordinary citizens to chip in and play a role in bringing fairness back to our civil justice system.
Juries play an enormous role in the overall effectiveness of our court system. They are responsible for determining guilt and innocence, and in civil litigation, it is up to the jury to determine who is in the wrong and who pays damages.
Unfortunately, overall juror participation remains low and recent surveys have shown that most people do not answer the call when selected for jury service. This has to change. The simplest and most effective way to improve our court system is to ensure that our juries are filled with knowledgeable and engaged citizens.
Each and every one of us would benefit from a court system that is more equitable, transparent and fair. This is important to local communities and it is important to the judicial system as a whole. It begins with all of us standing up and doing our part to make sure it works.