By Christopher Dolan and Lourdes De Armas
This week’s question comes from James P. in Daly City: I recently received a jury duty summons. With everything that is going, do I still need to serve on a jury? Should I ignore it?
Thank you for your question, James. It is true that many courtrooms have begun hearing jury trials. But many courts are prioritizing criminal cases. Los Angeles courts have been focusing on the 7,000 criminal cases that are currently backlogged, according to Presiding Judge Eric Taylor.
Civil cases have been pushed aside, leaving many victims anxiously waiting for their personal injury trial. The delayed cases include people badly injured in car accidents, medical malpractice, workplace accidents, sexual assault and workplace harassment.
The delays are primarily attributable to the pandemic shutdown of 2020. The apparent second surge of COVID-19 cases in various California counties is reinstating pandemic restrictions and quarantines. The trend may cascade to every county across the state, which could mean that additional trial extensions will continue to backlog cases. The legal landscape is justifiably frightening to those awaiting verdicts.
Another reason for delays plaguing all California courts, even criminal trials, is because all trials are paralyzed without a key component: jurors.
In the past few months, courts in Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego have had to delay trials because too few people responded to jury duty...
Read Full Story: https://www.sfexaminer.com/features/dont-toss-the-jury-duty-summons-justice-cant-be-served-without-you/
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