Jury Service
JURY SERVICE IN THE AFTERMATH OF COVID-19
We have changed our jury trial process because of COVID-19. Our next jury term is the week of December 7, 2020. Jury selection will take place during the weeks of November 23, 2020 and November 30, 2020. Each selection day is divided into two sessions and only 50 jurors will be reporting for each session. If you received a summons, your report time and date is located on the upper right-hand corner of the summons. Please ignore the report time located in the body of the summons.
Please be sure to call 717-780-6628 the day before your reporting date for specific instructions and any schedule changes.
WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU ARRIVE AT THE COURTHOUSE
You will enter the back door of the Courthouse and immediately will be greeted by a Security Officer and a Jury Office staff person. The Security Officer will do the following:
a. Ensure that jurors entering the building are maintaining a six-foot distance from others.
b. Take the temperature of the prospective jurors using an infrared digital thermometer.
c. Ensure that all jurors are wearing an appropriate face covering.
WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU ENTER THE JURY ASSEMBLY ROOM FOR JURY SELECTION
The Jury Assembly Room will be sanitized before your arrival. All chairs will be wiped down with disinfectant wipes before your arrival.
You will go through the security checkpoint and will be checked in by the Jury Office staff.
You will then be seated in chairs and you will be a safe distance from one another.
You will watch a ten-minute video explaining the court process.
The attorneys, parties and Judge will be brought in and jury selection will take place in the Jury Assembly Room. You will not be moved to a courtroom for jury selection. Once a panel is selected, the unselected jurors will be excused from service. The selected jurors will be given instructions and told the time to report during the week of December 7, 2020.
IF YOU HAVE ANY SPECIFIC QUESTIONS, PLEASE CONTACT OUR JURY MANAGER AT (717) 780-6622 OR JURY@DAUPHINC.ORG.
JURORS GUIDE
Dauphin County Bar Foundation's "We Care About Children Campaign"
The Dauphin County Bar Foundation "We Care About Children Campaign" fund provides legal services to low-income families at or below the poverty level for critical child custody issues here in Dauphin County.
Veteran's Trust Fund
Issues grants to statewide charitable organizations that assist veterans, veterans service organizations and county directors of veterans affairs to assist veterans in need of shelter and necessities of living.
If a juror would like to donate her/his compensation to one of these organizations, she/he will be required to complete and sign a form. A receipt will be issued to her/him at the end of her/his service.
THE JURORS' CREED
- I am a juror. I accept the position not only as an honor but as my solemn duty.
- I will remember the men who died to give us, and retain for us, the right of trial by jury, and I will reflect upon the fate of those people whose government gives them no such right.
- I will act with the realization that the success of the jury system depends upon the willingness of men and women of integrity and intelligence to accept jury service, and upon the fidelity with which they discharge that responsibility.
- I will respect the judge, his or her education, training and experience.
- I will listen attentively to all the evidence, the arguments of counsel, and the judge's instructions, and will thoughtfully and impartially weigh the issues.
- During the trial, I will not discuss the case with others nor permit others to discuss it with me; neither will I read about it in the newspapers, nor listen to broadcasts about it.
- While hearing a case I will keep an open mind until the case is finally submitted to the jury.
- I will observe the legal procedure not as red tape, but as a device developed through thousands of years of protection of the people.
- I will consider all of the evidence fully and fairly uninfluenced by friendship, sympathy, bias or prejudice.
