Have you been called to serve on a jury in Minnesota? If you’re like most people in the state, you haven’t. That’s because Minnesota has one of the lowest jury duty selection rates in the nation. In today’s blog, we did a little deeper and explore the inner workings of jury duty in Minnesota.
Jury Duty Summons in Minnesota
According to the most recent nationwide data on jury duty, roughly 15.2 percent of adults are summoned to jury duty each year. However, that fluctuates from each state. In Minnesota, only 3.4 percent of adults served on a jury that year, which ranks among the lowest states in the US. On the flip side, nearly half of all Californians over the age of 18 were called to serve on a jury in the past year, as 40 percent received a summons in the mail.
So why are so few Minnesotans called to jury duty? The main reason is because of how our jury selection process is designed. For starters, a number of people are ineligible to serve from the start. People under the age of 18 and those with certain criminal convictions are ineligible, and even if you do get summoned, you are then given a questionnaire to further determine your eligibility. Of the roughly 90,000 who are deemed qualified to serve on a jury by the questionnaire, only about half of those individuals will actually be called to serve.
Summons Length Key Too
Perhaps the biggest reason why so few people in Minnesota are called to serve on a jury in Minnesota is because of how our summoning system is designed. Herbert Kritzer, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, explains:
“In Minnesota the way it works is you get called for a week, you go in on Monday, you’ll sit around, maybe you’re put on a jury (that) first day, if you’re not put on a jury on Monday, you come back Tuesday … at some point, they may say you don’t have to come back, but you’re on for a week,” Kritzer said.
The length a person has to return to court varies depending on the county. For example, in some counties it’s one or two weeks, thile in other counties it’s one to four months. That’s not how it works in other states. In California, for example, they use a one day/one trial system. That means if you’re summoned to court, regardless of whether you actually end up serving on a jury, you’re only called for one day (unless trial length dictates continued service). As you can see, a system that replaces it’s jury pool on a daily basis would need to send out many more summons that one that has a longer summoning system.
Minnesota is in the minority when it comes to summons lengths, as roughly two-thirds of the US uses the one day/one trial system.
No Shows
Lastly, one final reasons why Minnesota’s summons pool may be smaller is because we tend to show up more frequently to fulfill our civic duty. When you consider that ignoring a jury summons is considered a criminal offense, you’d think that everyone would show up when called, but that’s just not the case. A 2009 study of California residents revealed that in the worst county, as many as 45 percent of people ignored a jury summons. Their statewide no show rate was 19 percent.
Failing to appear for jury duty isn’t always intentional, as records can be incomplete, people can move and mail can go undelivered. But in Minnesota, we appear to have pretty accurate records, and when called upon, Minnesotans seem more than willing to perform their civic duty. According to the Minnesota Court Information Office, less than five percent of Minnesotans don’t respond to their jury summons.
Have you ever been called to serve on a jury? We’d love to hear about your experience in the comments!
Related source: MinnPost
