I have jury duty this week, starting tomorrow.
I know it’s a civic duty, and I really don’t mind that part. It’s the loss of income that irritates me.
I’m a contractor and I bill by the hour so if I don’t work, I don’t get paid. At my rate I’ll be loosing a significant amount, at least two orders of magnitude greater than the paltry (and insulting) jury pay in Texas. All those highly paid lawyers and judges and the most they can come up with is $6 for the whole day?
I recently read about a court that had to send out the sheriff to round up jurors.
Here’s an idea from Econ 101. RAISE THE PAY! If you want people showing up for jury duty then give them a reason to. Right now jury duty is a HUGE cost to the juror. What if you get stuck on a long case? It could cause financial ruin. Make it worth their while and you’ll have people ASKING to be jurors instead of running from the duty.
If history means anything, I probably won’t get picked for a jury and I’ll only miss a day of work.
Here’s hoping.
