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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndiana trial courts can now send text and email reminders, cancellations, and rescheduling notices to jurors, the Indiana Supreme Court announced on Friday.
The Supreme Court’s Office of Court Technology added the enhancements to its Jury Management System, used by courts in 81 of Indiana’s 92 counties.
Eight counties began piloting the court-to-juror messaging feature in November 2019, the high court said. Courts in Clark, Floyd, Hendricks, Howard, Kosciusko, LaPorte, Madison and Monroe counties sent over 1,000 text messages and email notifications to nearly 20 jury panels during the pilot phase, which ended in March.
“While courts have remained open during the pandemic, COVID-19 temporarily halted jury trials and other non-emergency operations beginning in March 2020. As jury trials resume, trial courts are adapting to ensure a safe environment for staff, the public, case participants, and those called for jury duty. Measures may include social distancing, videoconferencing, more frequent cleaning, and now real-time communication with potential and selected jurors,” the high court’s announcement says.
Jurors can opt in for the text and email notifications by responding to a mailed questionnaire sent with the summons from the court. Getting both the summons and request for information together, the high court said, should reassure potential jurors that they are receiving legitimate notifications from the court.
As jurors are randomly selected for jury pools, they must opt into the text or email notification feature each time they are selected into a new jury pool. Those who do not opt in to receive text and email notifications are still required to appear for jury duty.
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