Software provider Tyler Technologies turns its attention to the courtroom now, facing the challenge of hosting jury trials during the COVID pandemic. As with most public sector challenges, Tyler has the solution.
The advent of social distancing due to the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the way our judicial system conducts its business.
This includes the way courts handle cases.
One aspect of that process that relies heavily on large gatherings of people is, of course, the jury process.
How do you bring large groups of people together when you can’t bring together large groups of people? Courts around the world have had to answer this question.
Since justice still needed to be served, many courts leveraged technology to develop processes to ensure they could handle whatever jury needs came up.
With a comprehensive jury management system (JMS) that has integrated features, such as Tyler Technologies’ Tyler Jury Manager, your court can streamline and manage its jury process all while maintaining any social distancing protocols.
Using an integrated, online portal, jurors can respond to any summonses or questionnaires through a self-service platform – instead of making a courthouse visit or mailing back any paperwork – so it’s an easier, more convenient process.
On the courts side, that system is integrated into the JMS, so accurate juror information is automatically entered without the need to re-enter or manually enter any data from paperwork, saving valuable staff time that can be used for more important, time-intensive tasks.
Utilising the right JMS and its features can also enable courts to safely gather people for jury duty.
Notifications through the response portal and/or text messages – features that are both integrated with the JMS, which the court can manage through one comprehensive system – makes it easy for the courts to stagger jury duty call times and communicate directly with jurors about specific times, locations, and more.
Your court can plan for alternate juror gathering locations, using those staggered start dates and times, and reach out to jurors to make them aware of this information with scheduled messages sent through your JMS and messaging feature.
The social distancing protocols don’t stop for those jurors who are selected.
Using online panel assignments through the JMS, your court can notify jurors of their service in advance, and find out which jurors respond to assignment, so you can adapt to the ever-changing court sittings and make sure you have enough people.
This can help your court and jury operation become more streamlined and cost efficient since no unnecessary jurors will show up.
Allowing jurors to remain at home as long as possible, will show better organisation, additional concern for social distancing and their safety, and provide cost savings by only compensating those who attend.
Click here to learn more about how one court was able to streamline its jury processes during the pandemic to save time and money.
