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Committee recommends abolishing Barry County jury board, forwards resolution to full board
Summary
The committee voted to recommend adoption of Resolution 25-12 to abolish the county jury board and assign jury management duties to trial court staff, citing existing jury-management software and a pending state bill that would eliminate jury boards.
Dave Filan, representing trial court staff, told the Barry County Board of Commissioners Committee of the Whole on April 1 that the trial court had entered a partnership with the county clerk’s office to manage circuit court files and jury-management duties and that modern jury-management software now handles many traditional jury-board tasks. "Most, if not all, of the jury board duties were being conducted either by the clerk staff prior to us managing those duties, and now they're being conducted by trial court staff," Filan said.
Filan said the county uses a Judicial Information Services (JIS) jury-management system that generates random potential-juror lists from state-supplied data and can produce large mailing lists and questionnaires. He also said a House bill (House Bill 4091) was introduced earlier this year to eliminate jury boards at the state level. "Because of those things, the court decided to go ahead and draft a policy that would outline jury management duties and assign all of those duties traditionally done by the jury board to court staff," Filan said.
Commissioners asked whether the court could lawfully reassign those statutorily listed duties before any change in state law; Filan said the chief judge had signed a policy delegating those duties to trial court staff and that the court is prepared to perform them. The sheriff asked who created and owns the JIS system; Filan said it is an in-house system provided by the state (JIS/SCALE) and that the state programmed and maintains it.
After discussion, Commissioner Colton moved and Commissioner Getty supported a motion to recommend adoption of Resolution 25-12, a resolution abolishing the county jury board. The committee approved the recommendation by voice vote; the chair announced "the motion carries." The committee did not record a roll-call tally in the discussion; the minutes show a voice vote and the motion carried.
The committee record includes Filan’s explanation that the jury board had been minimally used in recent years and that in neighboring counties the board is sometimes convened only to review the jury-management system. Filan also said the court had called jury-board members in last year to review questionnaires during a transition but that prior practice had relied on clerk or court staff.
The committee’s recommendation now goes to the full Board of Commissioners for final action.
