(Lawrenceville, Ga., Nov. 18, 2011) - Thanks to a recently approved "one day - one trial" option, jury service in Gwinnett County will now be a little easier - and even less expensive for the County. Last month, Gwinnett County trial judges approved a pilot project with the goal of reducing juror costs and making jury service more convenient for citizens.

"Judges were attempting to deal with two issues in creating the pilot project," said Court Administrator Phil Boudewyns. "The first goal was to save unnecessary inconvenience to the jurors and the second consideration was to save money when jurors were not actually needed for a trial."

Under the previous jury system, each individual trial judge summoned a pool of jurors for each individual case. Invariably, however, many fewer jurors were actually needed. Civil cases often settle on the eve of trial and criminal defendants often decide to enter a guilty plea rather than have a jury decide their fate. The jurors called in for those settled cases, after waiting for much of the day in some cases, then would be sent home with instructions to be on call for the rest of the week. Under the prior system, jury duty was a weeklong commitment to remain on call for the entire week even if the juror was never actually needed for a trial.

Developing a plan that would provide all judges with jurors while at the same time allow fewer jurors to be brought to the courthouse took over one year to formulate and was spearheaded by State Court Judge Randy Rich. Rich, who headed the pilot project, says most of the changes are as a direct result of data obtained from new jury management software. The new software was developed and implemented by Clerk of Court Tom Lawler and Chief Deputy Clerk Richard Alexander. Under state law, management of the jury pool is the responsibility of the Clerk of Courts.

"After analyzing the new data, we were able to see the accumulated numbers of jurors that were brought to the courthouse week after week but not used for a trial," said Judge Rich. "We also found that even though the jurors were placed on call for the rest of the week, they rarely were brought back for another trial."

Under the new plan, all judges with trials scheduled for Monday will pull jurors from a general pool, which will reduce the total number of jurors brought to the courthouse by 20%. Jurors may be required to participate in multiple courtroom panels during the course of the day. However, at the end of the day, those not selected for a trial are released for the entire week, while those who are selected will be released as soon as their one trial is complete. The new method saves the county $30 per day for every juror who is not brought to the courthouse. The reductions also will ease parking congestion and reduce long lines for security screenings for jurors coming into the courthouse on Monday mornings.

During the pilot project, the county reduced the jury costs by $4,400 over four weeks. Applied to the calendar year, the projected savings is projected to be in the range of $100,000 annually. The new one day - one trial jury service program began Nov. 1.