A California bill that would allow San Francisco to pay low-income jurors $100 a day is just over a week away from its next step toward becoming law.
Assembly Bill 1452, if passed, would allow some jurors in criminal trials in the Superior Court of San Francisco to make $100 a day as part of a pilot program. Jurors in the state currently make $15 per day, starting with their second day of service.
The bill will be heard in the state Senate Appropriations Committee on July 15 after unanimously advancing from the Senate Public Safety Committee on June 29.
"We surveyed juries and found that 35% of (jurors) were not gonna receive any pay if they had to take time off to serve on a jury," San Francisco Treasurer José Cisneros, a co-sponsor of the bill, told KCBS Radio's Rebecca Corral on Wednesday afternoon. "And what we saw, then, is that creates a barrier for people who would like to serve on a jury, but simply cannot because they can't afford to take time off without getting paid."
As far as Cisneros is aware, this is the first program of its kind in the country. City officials are calling the pilot "Be the Jury."
A juror would qualify for the pilot program if they or their household makes fewer than 80% of the area median income, as well as just one of another handful of conditions.
If a juror’s employer doesn’t pay them for jury duty or doesn’t pay them for the entirety of the criminal trial, they can make $100 a day. So, too, can jurors who are self-employed or unemployed.
Cisneros said the current $15 rate results in juries that are less racially and economically diverse. As part of the pilot program, an outside firm will analyze jurors’ self-reported data to see what, if any, impact the program has on jury diversity and court outcomes.
The city’s Financial Justice Project secured private funding to run the program, which Cisneros is hopeful will start in 2022 and run through "most" of next year.
As currently written, the bill says the program can’t run past 2023, nor any time after officials "determine the increased financial reimbursement is causing prejudice to the rights of litigants or the interests of justice."
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