Pierce County Launches Juror Pay Pilot, New Daily Rate Will be $100 Through May

Pierce County Launches Juror Pay Pilot, New Daily Rate Will be $100 Through May

October 14, 2024

As part of a pilot program set to begin October 14 and run through May 2025, jurors who appear for jury duty at the County-City building (which includes Pierce County District Court, Superior Court and Tacoma Municipal Court) will receive $100 per day plus mileage reimbursement.

This pay increase replaces the $10 typically paid to jurors in Pierce County and throughout the majority of Washington. The pilot program will measure whether higher juror pay reduces barriers to jury participation and in turn improves jury diversity.

Administrative Office of the Courts staff have partnered with Pierce County to distribute surveys to participating jurors to measure the impact and sentiment of increased pay. The surveys will also measure demographic changes over the course of the pilot.

Once the pilot concludes, work will immediately begin to compile the findings into a report, which will be presented to the legislature along with potential recommendations for a more permanent adjustment to juror pay. The Supreme Court Minority and Justice Commission expects to present the report to the 2026 legislature.

The legislature appropriated nearly $1.6 million to Pierce County for the seven-month pay pilot, paying for $90 of the $100 daily rate for jurors, while the county continues to pay for the remaining $10.

While the legislature may opt for more pay pilots if Pierce County's results alone aren't enough to convince the body to revise the juror pay statue, this level of support from the legislature is a step towards increasing a pay rate that hasn't gone up since 1959.

"The fact that the legislature has looked at this issue and that they've put $1.6 million into seeing if reducing this barrier, in particular, of straight income, has the ability to increase the diversity of our juries, that's huge," said Chris Gaddis, Pierce County Superior Court Administrator. "It's a big win for the court system and it's a big win for the public."

A statewide juror demographic survey, conducted by Seattle University in partnership with the Minority and Justice Commission, found that combined household income was a significant indicator of a potential juror's ability to participate in jury service. Additionally, white respondents represented the minority in the lowest income category and the majority in the highest income category for both men and women.

Among those responding to jury summons, Black, American Indian and Alaskan Native survey respondents were generally underrepresented. Additionally, a majority of all survey respondents (64%) indicated experiencing a conflict or hardship that presented a barrier to participating in jury service.

Among other recommendations, the survey also advised the legislature to continue to implement pilot increases in juror pay and monitor changes in demographics.

Laurie Louise Sale, a court program analyst for the AOC's Office of Judicial and Legislative Relations, is working with Pierce County to administer the pay pilot. She explained how a successful pilot program would not only improve jury diversity but also jury participation as a whole.

"I think overall a successful pilot program would be an increased jury pool," Sale said. "People actually saying yes to the summons because they're going to have more money in their pocket at the end of the day, and feel that they can take a step away from their daily job position and commit to jury duty without doing real damage to their daily budget, weekly budget, what have you."

The Washington State Minority and Justice Commission was established by the state Supreme Court in 1990 to recommend actions for overcoming racial and ethnic bias in the courts of Washington. A 1988 task force established at the request of state lawmakers found that bias exists in the state's judicial system.

CONTACT: Laurie Louise Sale, Pay Pilot Project Manager, [email protected]; Patric Haerle, Communications Officer, [email protected], 360-712-1892

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