People don't resent being able to participate in the democratic process through jury service; they resent the fact that the court shows no respect for their time. Here are some ways that jury selection could be improved to be more respectful of prospective jurors' time.
- Instead of keeping people's schedules in purgatory for a week, the court should assigned prospective jurors to particular cases before asking them to put their lives on hold. There's nothing worse that being asked to sit in a jury assembly room for a whole day, just waiting for your name to be called.
- Instead of asking for hardship requests in the courtroom, people should be able to submit these requests online before ever needing to appear at the courthouse. This would be more efficient for people serving jury duty and for the court.