Jury Duty Is More Than Just A Civic Duty

Every year in Connecticut, more than half a million citizens are selected for jury duty. While most jurors slog through the process without much joy, jury participation is absolutely essential to our judicial system and our Democratic form of government.

The Constitution mandates that every individual who faces incarceration for more than six months has a right to a jury trial, but juries are often available in civil cases as well.(Non-jury cases are heard only before a judge and are referred to as “bench trials.”) To guarantee a fair trial for all parties, the potential jurors (a.k.a. the “jury pool”) are selected from a cross-section of the community. Prior to trial, each party has an opportunity to examine the jury pool to ensure that none of the jurors has any prior knowledge or bias regarding the case or parties to the case. From here, the court seats a jury of no less than six and no more than twelve citizens who will hear and ultimately decide the case.

Being judged by a panel of peers is just one characteristic that sets our judicial system apart from many other judicial systems around the world. Jury service is more than just fulfilling your civic duty—it’s what America is all about. Next time you’re randomly selected for jury duty don’t forget that your service is indispensable to the judicial system and to your peers who may be involved in a trial.