001digitally zoom in on your face so [Music] welcome to meet the court I'm your host Joe Johnson meet the court has brought to you as a public service by the Superior Court of New Jersey in Atlantic and Cape May counties as well as the Cape make Technical High School to better inform you the public on the workings of the court and the role of the judiciary in our communities today's topic jury service it's important to our society our guests the jury management team Janice Headley race Logan ski morning and Stephanie day hey soos Vasquez good morning good morning so we're talking about jury and it's important to our society Rey what can you tell us about the history of jury service in the United States of America the United States jury system and our system
002dates back over 200 years to colonial times and is discussed in a Declaration of Independence the right to a jury trial is guaranteed by the sixth and seventh amendments of the United States Constitution Constitution in under Article one of the New Jersey Constitution it is both a privilege and an honor as well as our duty to participate in our judicial process although we recognize that serving as a juror may be inconvenient at times it is important to the process that the pool of prospective jurors be diverse and represent the community so where do you get some of the names of the people who may be summons for jury duty we obtain the names from three different sources those sources are registered voters license driver's filers of state gross income tax and filers of Homestead rebate
003application forms this list is handled and maintained by the administrator Ministry of office of the courts of Trenton so Janice I understand that there are two types of juries can you tell me the difference between a Petitte jury and a grand jury is named while both names have their origin in the French language Pettitte meaning small grand meeting large for a grand jury we select 23 jurors 12 of which create a quorum and they are used in order to decide if there's sufficient evidence to hold somebody to indict somebody so that they may eventually go to trial a Pettit jury there's criminal and civil Pettit juries in Pettit means small in a Pettit jury there are 14 selected for a criminal case sometimes 16 but only 12 will deliberate to a verdict the others are
004alternates and in a civil case there's six to eight jurors and sometimes all of them deliberate to a verdict other times only some of them only six of them deliberate to a verdict Wow so ray how often can you be summoned to as a juror perspective jurors can be summoned once every three years for service as a Pettit a state grant or a local grand keeping in mind that the federal grand jury is separate and distinct from our jury system and it does not apply to the time frames of the petty or grand juries so I've got an emergency going on at the house and my exempt from jury service and if not who is very few reasons exempt you from jury service if you have an emergency going on in your schedule for jury
005service you can contact the jury office and we work with you and we can postpone or defer your jury service to a time that is more convenient for you not to put you in under any undue stress there are excuses that can be listed on the jury summons there are several excuses that you can apply for at the time when you register for jury service and just a Segway off of that if you are requesting an excuse it's very important that you provide us with documentation it can't be done over the telephone you must send in your jewelry summons accompanied by the documentation that would be excusing you it is a foundational duty of our American society you're right so we should be making sure that we have appropriate documentation so you talked about the
006French origins and there's a word that people have heard maybe in movies my cousin Vinnie what is a voir dear water simply means tell the truth to speak the truth and water happens once you go to a courtroom a judge will ask the entire venire e a question Rico several questions that help the attorneys and the judges learn more about each prospective juror there are no right or wrong answers in wadiya they simply ask that you speak the truth and if you have something private that you need to discuss you can always ask to a person approach to the bench there's no reason for you to have to speak it out in public right how long do I have to stay on the jury with I'm required to serve the instructions for length of jury
007service is clearly printed on your summons please make sure that you read these instructions carefully there's usually a Gibby maybe a day but it's usually the length of a trial jury trial Janice when I report for petit juror service what happens well the first thing that's going to happen is your summons is likely going to direct you to call after 5:30 p.m. the night before your service or to check our online site and then you will report to the courthouse you will be asked to go through security you'll go through security and the sheriff's officers are will help you find the jury management office there are signs clearly indicating where it is you'll then check in with the jury management office a we also ask that you bring your summons when you arrive it makes
008check-in a lot easier then you'll proceed into the jury assembly room where the jewelry a member of the jury management staff or myself and a Superior Court judge will orient you will tell you what to expect we'll ask you to keep to review the voir dire but to keep your questions or your answers yourself not to talk about them with your neighbor we will then wait for chambers to call at that time we will proceed to the court room we ask that you would silence all electronic devices remove your hats we'll go into the courtroom the judge will begin the voir dire process a jury the the attorneys will exercise their peremptory strikes which the number that they get is according to the court law court rule I'm sorry and a jury a satisfactory jury
009will eventually be impaneled we'll take them downstairs and back into the jury assembly room tell them what to expect give them different badges and the trial judge will tell them how long they can expect it either this is meet the court I'm your host Joe Johnson will be back with Janice ray and Stephanie after this message welcome back to meet the court I'm your host Joe Johnson we're here today with members of the vicinage one jury management team Janice ray and Stephanie we're discussing jury service and its overall benefit to the community so Janice you told us about Petitte service now tell us about grand jury service well grand jury service is a lot less formal than petty jury service there a judge is not present it is the prosecutor the witness the clerk to
010the grand jury in Atlantic County we have three separate grand jury panels going at all times and in Cape May County there is one grand jury panel they meet for approximately eight to ten weeks one day a week the there is a floor person that is a member of the jury that handles the proceedings and it's important to remember that when the grand jury returns an indictment that does not mean that the defendant is guilty it simply means that there was enough evidence for them to hold drop to fir them for the case to proceed so it sounds like our jurors are very important to the process Stephanie do you work with the Sheriff's Department regarding security concerns the Sheriff Department is in charge with the day-to-day security based on the judiciary model court security
011plan to keep our judiciary staff inform on the policies our operation managers me girly with the Sheriff Department in order to address security concerns so so there are any misunderstandings with jurors what items should they not bring into the courthouse with them it goes without saying that weapons are not permitted in the courthouses in addition don't bring any liquid favorite beverages dress-coat business casual is recommended in just a Segway on that we talked about the things that you can't bring but there are things you can bring you can bring electronic advices in fact devices in fact we recommend that you bring a magazine a book because sometimes there is waiting we don't like to keep you waiting but we want to make sure that you're comfortable while you're doing so so Stephanie I just got
012a new camera for Christmas can I bring that in the court home room with me yes recording a picture taking is not permitted in the court room because it's very important to pay attention to the judge questions you will be instructed by the course staff about the usage of electronic devices you are more than welcome to bring something that will keep you occupied in between breaks such as books magazine or a puzzle game so I can't bring my camera huh you can you just cannot use the inside the courtroom what the judge is on the bench that seems fair so Janice you told us about grand jury service and petty jury service what happens if a juror who summons to jury service does not appear well they can be held in contempt of court and
013a monetary fine can be imputed to them however we understand that mistakes happen and what we want is people to come in and perform their jewelry service so if you forgot to appear for your service give us a call we can reschedule you postpone you whatever we need to do we are definitely understanding that mistakes happen Stephanie I need the park when I get down to jury service is there parking available for people like me when they have to report to the courthouse yes there is parking available at all of our courthouses parking instructions are clearly indicated on your jury summons and the Atlantic City location parking is located on New York Avenue in the Atlantic in between I'm sorry in New York Avenue in between Atlantic and Pacific Avenue it's a five story parking
014garage jury management will validate your parking ticket before before all Judas get in the cart they must show that and then their parking ticket to make them aware they have been sent by the court so okay I've never been to the courthouse before how are to go once I get there the instructions are clearly on each summons okay so Janice you talked about potential fines which you'll work with me but I've been getting these phone calls that I think may be a scam and I've heard of friends who have got scammed injuries in the recent news and in the past so how does a potential juror know if a phone call is legitimate and coming from the court in general Jori management does not make phone calls to potential jurors we reach out to them
015via summons possibly email if they've contacted us online it is unusual for us to make phone calls I don't want to say that it never happens there are occasions but you should reach out to me the jury manager to make sure that it is indeed a phone call that originated from our office Stephanie why are you jurors wear badges in the courtroom prospective jurors and impaneled uterus moe must wear badges in order for them to be clearly identified from the public it is important to to the process that no one discussed ongoing cases with jitters if someone speak about the case with a shooter the Deuter must report that immediately to jury management or the judge this information must be kept confidential only discussed with court personal this is the reason why they were a
016batch so they can be identified from the public so we talked about badges and jurors in the courthouse is there anything else about jury that someone should know from your perspective Stephanie is that a fun experience it is it is we have approximately five hundred and four full-time judiciary's employee in vicinage one including 28 full time judges raise it fun from your perspective absolutely I have the opportunity to meet many different people different work areas different personalities and I see that a lot of people that come in they are anxious often angry about having to serve on jury duty but most of the time by the time they leave they're thanking us for a good experience Janice how about from your perspective I would agree with Ray invariably we have a positive feedback from our
017jurors they find it to be a rewarding experience and they get to see how our just our justice system works from the inside is there a payment for jury service Janice yes there is a payment for jury service for life and how much is that payment that payment is five dollars a day for the first three days and then $40 a day for each subsequent day and that's only for petty jury grand jurors are paid five dollars a day for each day that they meet some I'd add to that there are certain individuals that are not paid for jury service yes if they are employed by the state school systems or anything like that because they are paid by their organizations we do not pay them so government employees like myself won't get paid for
018working and during jury service that's correct I guess that seems only fair so right what age if is there jury is there a jury age requirement how old do I have to be to serve on a jury and how old will I be to when I don't have to serve on a jury anymore you must be at least 18 years of age to serve and at age 75 you are no longer required to serve on the jury summons there is a question in that can indicate whether you are so 875 oh you want to continue to serve that does not mean you're not going to receive jury summonses we cannot stop the summonses for coming to you because there's plenty of people past the age of say 75 that still want to serve and we
019welcome them but you can wish to opt out at age 7 five this is meet the court I'm your host Joe Johnson we'll be back with Janice ray and Stephanie after this message welcome back to meet the court I'm your host Joe Johnson we're discussing jury service and its benefit to the community with the vicinage one jury management team so we've talked a bit about jury management but before we go any further I want to just get to know you so Janice we'll start with you just tell us a little bit about yourself and about your role with the court okay my name is Janice Headley I've been with vicinage one for a year and a half now and the role as jory manager prior to that I worked at the administrative office of the
020courts as an administrative supervisor for the Superior Court Clerk's office I I manage three different sites I have an awesome team and we have a lot of fun we meet a lot of interesting people every day our job is always different we're always doing something that changes things up for us and I am the assignment I mean I'm sorry I am the designee of our assignment judge the Honourable Julio Mendez I work very closely with the judges in our vicinage to ensure that their jury needs are met oh and all were really a fun group of people to hang out with every day so I said in the intro that we were talking with the jury management team but it seems that there's a lot more people than they're sitting here or in our panel
021about how many jury staff would you say are one in the county's it varies from County to County I have 12 members of jury but we also have three different locations to cover well so ray tell us a little bit about you and about your role with the court hi well my name is race lijinsky a part of the jury management team for a vas image one working in a maze landing courthouse I've worked for the judiciary for about 11 years now and I'm joy to every bit of it part of my responsibilities include attending the jurors when they arrive assigning jurors to a judge and a trial and then during the trials I a jurors however I can a daily operations of the site Stephanie tell us about your role with the court and
022a little bit about yourself hello my name is Stephanie Lee hisses Vasquez I am a judiciary clerk two violen well I assess with preparing jurors for a jury selection by processing their summons on upon them reporting I prepare them for the judge for jury service I have acted as a backup for the clerk to the grand jury I also assist our spanish-speaking population thank you so when jurors come to jury duty and they know where to go and how to get there and what time to show up but how do I know what to do haven't well we do an orientation and we show them a film called you the juror incidentally I think it's really important to know that our chief justice also served as a juror as well as our administrative director it's
023important to know that court staff serves police officers serve all people from all walks of life serve on jury service if someone from the public needs to contact the jury management team where would they go to get the numbers it online yes it is online where what's the web address it's w w NJ courts online gov under the tab jurors okay so what other types of jury service are there well there's state grand jury and there's federal grand jury state grand jury is at this time still handle that the vicinage level that's where we have three prospective jurors that report to Trenton from Atlantic County and one prospective juror that reports to trend from Cape May County for grants sacred and jury selection which is conducted in Trenton federal grand jury that's outside of our
024jurisdiction okay so I'm sure the viewing public wants to know what are some of the perks of jury service are there any Janice I'll ask you first absolutely there's perks well as I said you get to hang out with us all day but we have microwaves we have refrigerators we serve we have coffee and tea available to you water available to you it's a comfortable place to be you should feel at home there anybody else raised they feel at home they do we do our best to make sure there is as comfortable as possible yeah understand that they are in a professional area and they have a very serious job to do but we do our best to put them at ease make them understand what their importance is and to help them however we
025can in many in many areas we have jurors small example where do I go for lunch well we have plenty of places we can direct them to infectors even places in the courthouse where they can eat and we make sure that what their needs are are taken care of is the best as we possibly can Stephanie you work with the spanish-speaking population so in what ways do you seek to bridge the gap between the English language that's spoken by the majority of court users and the Spanish language spoken by some folks that are in the minority of speakers of the language it's a pretty big gap so how do you address it by doing my best my best helping that with whatever they need if I need to walk them down the hall for any
026other issue I will go beyond that line to help them to get what they need so as far as what's aware what should I wear and what shouldn't I wear jury service well you should absolutely address business casual be prepared for different climates in the courtroom it could be very cold it could be warm I I recommend that you not you can't wear a uniform for instance you or carry a badge or wear a badge or not carry a badge beware of that and is that because the jurors are supposed to be seen as impartial absolutely impartial okay what shouldn't we wear right is there any ideas of what I shouldn't be wearing to the courtroom I kind of feel that loud clothing or revealing clothing should not be worn right you want to be
027comfortable comfortable business casual is the key here but make sure that you you are gonna feel comfortable during the day you don't have to wear business shoes if you're comfortable in sneakers wear sneakers we ask that you don't wear shorts you know again that's part of not part of business casual t-shirts be very selective in the type of t-shirts that you wear just remember you're in a public area and there are people that get offended sometimes okay so Stephanie one last question for you when you're working with the spanish-speaking population and you're going above and beyond and you're helping them with their with their needs what are the typical types of questions that you get that you have to help them with why do I get these summons if I do not speak the language
028how do they want me to fill it out if it is not in Spanish that's one of the typical questions they ask thank you this is meet the court I'm your host Joe Johnson we're just about out of time I like to thank you our viewing audience for watching today and I'd like to thank our guests for joining us goodbye for now