Overhauling Jury Duty in Tennessee

Getting out of jury duty in Tennessee may get more difficult. Now, attorneys, doctors, and those over 65 get out of serving on a jury automatically. But those exemptions, plus other outdated statutes would be eliminated under a new proposal that the Tennessee Judicial Council will hear on Tuesday.

Attorney David Haines is the liaison for the state’s court system. He says the current law favors a process that weeds out on too many people on the front end, especially in smaller communities.

“In some cases, more than you would think, people simply aren’t getting summoned to begin with because of some knowledge that oh, well I know this person I know they’re exempt, or I know they’ve got this particular situation. So, there would be very few exemptions on the front end from jury service. Almost everybody would eligible and then you work backwards from there.”

Under the proposal, counties would move toward an automated random drawing of eligible jurors.

Tennessee’s statutes regarding jury service haven’t been updated since the mid-to-late 80s and the general consensus is that it’s getting harder and harder to fill jury pools even though county by county participation isn’t formally tracked.

The bill also gets rid of a laundry list of outdated provisions including one that says juror’s names should be pulled from a box by either a 10-year old or a blindfolded adult.