The state of California recently implemented a new jury service system, calling on citizens to serve for either "one trial" or "one day." It requires counties to pay them at least $15 a day for their service, plus 15 cents per mile that they travel to the courthouse. Although the stipend doesn't kick in until the second day of service, the mileage counter starts clicking right away.
The result is that thousands of checks for amounts less than $1 are being issued to one-day jurors. Aside from being major administrative headaches for counties, such checks cost significantly more to process and mail than they're worth.
Before the implementation of one-day service, only 3 percent of the Los Angeles Superior Court's checks were made out for less than $5, at a cost of $5,000 in a six-month period. Since then, the percentage of $5-or-under checks has shot up to 37 percent, costing the county $70,000 in an equivalent period.
The state insists that the statute is clear. A number of counties, however, think otherwise--reasoning that if jurors aren't to be paid for the first day, they shouldn't be compensated for mileage, either.
The San Bernardino County court, for example, doesn't provide any mileage reimbursement for the first day of service, but it then shells out 20 cents a mile for subsequent days. The Orange County Superior Court doesn't even bother trying to make up the first day's mileage. "I think any of my jurors would be horrified to receive a 30-cent check," says jury commissioner Alan Slater, "knowing that it probably costs five or six bucks to cut that check."
