> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Jury duty is a burden for all to share - URL: https://www.smdp.com/jury-duty-is-a-burden-for-all-to-share/ - Published: 2002-08-13T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T00:37:52.000Z - Author: Carolyn Sackariason - Tags: Crime, Santa Monica, #archive-import *LA Superior Court levels playing field with jury duty Source: Juror Services Division, Los Angeles Superior Court Of the nine professions that used to be exempt from jury duty, the Los Angeles Superior Court System has increased those professionals’ involvement in the courtroom by requiring them to serve.* Reporting to jury duty may be one of the most dreaded obligations of being an American. In the Los Angeles Superior Court System, some people were exempt from ever having to serve because of their professions. That’s changed. Judges, lawyers, firefighters, as well as other public safety and justice system professionals now share the burden of serving on juries. “Those professions were granted excuses immediately,” said LA Superior Court spokesman Kyle Christopherson. “It wasn’t absolutely necessary for them to serve then. Now it is.” Up until a year ago, people who fell into certain professional categories were able to skirt out of jury duty. But the LA Superior Court System decided to level the playing field by mandating that nearly all residents serve on juries, regardless of what they do for a living. A new system, called “1 trial” allows potential jurors to be “on call” for five days and report only to the courthouse if they are needed. The old system required jurors to sit for days in the courthouse waiting to get selected. Often times they’d be turned away during the “voir dire” process when attorneys pick and choose the juries before the start of a trial. Before the new system, court officials felt the public was better served if certain professionals — particularly emergency personnel and judges — remained on the job instead of serving on a jury. “It’s not like we have pinch hitters,” said Superior Court Judge Alan Haber, the supervising judge who oversees six courthouses and 46 judges on the westside. However, the new system requires more people to be on call, which places more pressure on the entire population to fill jury slots. And because many people try to get out of jury duty, the LA Superior Court system has cracked down and won’t except excuses like financial hardship anymore. And to make the system even more fair, court officials decided that judges, lawyers and other judicial professionals should also serve. “In the old days you would never serve on juries,” said Hal Light, president of the Santa Monica Bar Association, who recently was summoned to serve. Haber has a summons sitting on his desk to show up for jury duty, an obligation he is more than willing to fulfill. He added if there is one type of professional that should serve on juries, it is attorneys since they contribute a significant portion of the burden on the already taxed court system — especially in Los Angeles County, one of the most litigious counties in the country. In the past year, the Los Angeles Superior Court has recorded nearly 5,000 people serving on juries that are judges, deputy district attorneys, deputy public defenders, crime laboratory technicians, firefighters, probation officers, parole officers and correction officers. Court officials report that 113 judges and 4,229 attorneys had reported for jury duty last year. “This analysis underscores the reality that we are approaching true equity in jury service in Los Angeles County and that is notable,” said James A. Bascue, Los Angeles County’s presiding judge. “We have reached a point when citizens from all walks of life report for jury service and sit on juries.” > “This analysis underscores the reality that we are approaching true equity in jury service in Los Angeles County and that is notable.” — — JAMES A. BASCUE Los Angeles County’s presiding judge Police officers and sheriff’s deputies are not included because they are still exempt from having to serve. When citizens report to a courthouse for jury service, they enter a pool of potential jurors that may be dispatched to a courtroom for possible placement on a jury. Once in the courtroom, the judge and lawyers on both sides observe and question the potential jurors during a process called “voir dire,” a French term meaning “to see and to speak.” If a juror questioned during the process is found acceptable for jury service by the judge and all participating lawyers, the person is sworn in as a jury member. On the other hand, the prosecuting and defense lawyers, or the judge, can disqualify and excuse jurors for many reasons, including a concern that they may not be impartial. Because judges and attorneys often know one another, judges are highly likely to be disqualified during “voir dire.” Attorneys, assistant district attorneys and deputy public defenders also may be presumed to have a potential bias, especially in criminal cases. “Often in the past, certain professionals were routinely excused from jury service or it was wrongly presumed that they would never be accepted as unbiased jurors in a criminal or civil case,” Judge Bascue said. “We now know that this assumption was a myth. Members of the public — appropriately — saw the routine excusals from jury duty of judges, lawyers, prison guards and others in the justice system as preferential treatment. “It fanned resentment,” he continued. “It was an inequity and we moved to eliminate it.” An average of 69 percent of the members of the nine examined professions were sent to “voir dire” and an average of 14 percent were actually sworn in as jurors. Of the 73 percent of the general public that were sent to “voir dire,” 22 percent actually served as jurors. “It is true that judges, deputy DAs and deputy public defenders are far less likely to be seated on juries than the general public,” said Judge Robert A. Dukes, assistant judge of the superior court. “But that’s expected because they are so familiar with the courts and are likely to be well known to attorneys involved in the case. “Still, it is highly significant that members of these professions serve on juries,” he said. “Having nine judges and 13 percent of all attorneys actually seated on juries is testimony to the inherent equity in our jury system. We will continue to strive for a system in which everyone, and that means everyone, serves on jury duty.” *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 13, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/081302.pdf?ref=smdp.com)