Sep 3, 2015 3 min read

Two years after the state Supreme Court ruled counties could abolish the office of jury commissioner, Washington County is seeking proposals to further automate the process of notifying jurors and paying them for their service.

Washington County Court Administrator Patrick R. Grimm said Thursday the software now in use is at least a decade old.

“We want it to be a system on which we can build and add more capabilities in future years,” Grimm said. “We really can’t do that with our current system.”

Washington County Court officials went to see an automated system in use in Beaver County and surveyed other counties.

The commissioners unanimously voted Thursday that the county advertise for software that will provide for the creation of fully automated juror payment reports and vouchers, bar-coded summons and questionnaires, Web-based juror reporting and automated phone module communication interfaces, juror documents and geocoding.

Instead of having jurors listen to a list of numbers to find out if their services are needed, each juror will be given a number code to punch into a phone and learn if and when he or she needs to come to court. The system could potentially mean having to notify fewer potential jurors, Grimm said. Or, if they prefer, jurors could be notified via text message or email so they could better balance jury duty with family and work responsibilities.

Officials also hope to have removed from a master list those excused due to permanent disability or people who no longer live in Washington County. Although the summoning of jurors won’t be entirely paperless, Grimm hopes to reduce the amount of paper needed by storing and viewing questionnaires electronically.

In 2011, the year that then-Gov. Tom Corbett signed legislation allowing counties to do away with the elected office, the Washington County jury commissioners’ office spent about $118,000. After the matter was litigated, Judith Fisher and Richard Zimmerman became the county’s last jury commissioners at the close of 2013.

The jury management budget for this year now stands at $70,000 for a single employee and related miscellaneous costs.

Last year, Washington County Court summoned 6,270 jurors, 1,382 of whom reported. So far this year, the court has summoned 6,522 jurors, 1,249 of whom reported.

The county orders a new master list of jurors using names from a database provided by the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts. This master list contains more than 200,000 names selected randomly by a computer. The database draws names based on voter registration, driver’s licenses, tax assessments and welfare and food stamp recipients.

Grimm said some Washington County residents have postal addresses originating in Allegheny County communities, for example, and prospective jurors from other counties could be eliminated more easily with the use of upgraded automation.