State lawmakers want to streamline the jury selection process and make serving more appealing. A committee of the Tennessee Judicial Council started examining the jury selection process today, at the behest of Nashville Representative Rob Briley.
He sponsored a bill to make changes to the state’s rules this year, but later said it would be better studied comprehensively. Briley says the makeup of many juries doesn’t reflect society and it’s hard to get people to serve on them.
Committee Chair Jeff Henry says jurors feel serving is often an inconvenience.
“When a man or woman or citizen comes to serve on a jury whether there’s efficient use of their time made, whether we are addressing things that they have to address like childcare issues or parking issues or compensation issues or whether the compensation issues touches the expense that person incurs by coming to sit on the jury.”
All 95 counties have their own ways of selecting and dealing with jurors, so the committee will also look at the possibility of setting some guidelines.
The committee will make recommendations to the full Tennessee Judicial Council in November, which will in turn, do the same to the General Assembly before its next session starts in January.
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