In 2017, the Los Angeles County Juror Services Office sent me a jury duty summons. It sure wasn't my idea - and I had no choice. I did exactly what they told me. Just as the paperwork told me, I first called the Los Angeles County Superior Court (LACSC) phone number to register. Later on, I watched an online jury duty training vid. Then, I took a jury duty test to qualify as a juror. I read all the jury duty paperwork, and I learned that starting day two, I would receive $15.00 a day - taxable - as my jury duty salary. That sure looked wrong. Based on what I learned from the the jury duty paperwork and the training vid, I saw jury duty as a job, even at that early stage. As a job, jury duty entitled me to minimum wage for ALL hours that I worked as a juror. This would cover day one, and the personal time I used for the required jury duty training and test. I also learned that Los Angeles County would pay me seventeen cents a mile - taxable - for my jury duty commuting expenses, also starting on day two. That mileage price also looked wrong. Gasoline in the Los Angeles area costs much more than $3.00 a gallon. Seventeen cents a mile would never cover my fuel expenses, wear and tear on my car, or wear and tear on me.
After a little more research, I learned that California jurors last got a raise sometime around the turn of the century, through a California government law. California jury duty pay and mileage amounts did not rise with federal / state minimum wage level increases or inflation. The basic IRS definition of a job clearly covers jury duty. It still amazes me that a federal judge defined jury duty as a job, to explain what he demands from jurors, but somehow, he stayed silent about how jurors therefore earn minimum wage as jury duty employees. Los Angeles County government obviously agrees with him, because they embedded this vid at the official Los Angeles County government jury duty website. California government alone has increased minimum wage rates many times since 1999, but those increases don’t cover jury duty. California has increased direct and indirect gas taxes many times, including a new twelve cent per gallon gas tax this past November. I'd sure like to know why California legislators never increased the jury duty mileage payment to compensate for those increased taxes. However, as a California taxpayer, I pay all California legislators a $104,000 annual taxable salary. I gave them plenty of raises since the year 2000. I pay each of them a $183 daily per diem, and they made sure they pay zero tax on that per diem. I also pay each of them 53 cents a mile for their own commuting expenses - also tax-free. When they call it "per diem" "travel expense" money, maybe they think it sounds better when they pay zero tax on it. Based on these facts, California legislators can't wait to invent government laws that pay tax-free minimum wage for all hours that Californian jury duty temp job employees work as jurors. Those legislators can't wait to invent laws that pay California jurors 53 cents a mile - tax-free - for every honestly-counted mile every California jury duty employee drives between home and the official jury duty parking lots. Those legislators will just need a little motivation to get going.
Soon enough, LACSC told me to get to the L.A. County Airport courthouse on May 24, 2017 at 9:30 AM PST. I did exactly that, and except for the lunch hour, I spent my whole time there in the jury duty ready room. I never landed in a trial, and the jury duty staff released me at about 3:30 PM PST. When I got home, I read the U.S. Constitution because I remembered that it would guarantee my rights, even as a juror. I just needed to find the exact amendment. Yup - Amendment 13, Involuntary Servitude Clause, U.S. Constitution covered me. After all, my full-time jury duty employers, at least one major federal judge, Los Angeles County government, and myself all agree that jury duty is a job. I never applied for that job. I received no pay and no mileage compensation at all for that job. As a non-lawyer American, my cynicism about jury duty grew and I researched all these issues. To learn more about how eligible Americans deal with jury duty, I investigated the jury duty history of both Thomas Steyer and Barbra Streisand. I ended up with many questions and no answers about them because I hit massive government secrecy walls. I taught myself jury duty law, and when I wrote and published Common Sense - Third Millennium, I became the best jury duty law expert in the United States of America.
If I paid political campaign contribution money, I believe that government employees would reform jury duty pay and mileage, and would de-taxify jury duty, if I explained - with my payment - those exact demands. I have never touched political campaign contribution money, and I never will. I now see jury duty service as a political campaign contribution. This makes perfect sense, because government employees have something I want - jury duty reform. Eventually, I will once again have something government employees want - jury duty employment. If government employees, including legislators, don’t reform jury duty, then during my next jury duty voir dire temp job interview, I will have to explain the situation to the hiring judge. If that judge does not build and / or arrange to build a pay and mileage jury duty employee compensation package that must obviously happen, I will resign to that judge. I will do this to protect my Constitutional rights and economic survival. I have the right to do this. My resignation will help motivate government employees to reform jury duty. This means that jury duty will begin to formally operate just like political campaign contribution money. Ideally, full-time government employees will reform jury duty before any of this happens.
Earlier, this piece explained that existing jury duty laws have become major zero-day flaws in the American justice system. That looks like quite a claim, but it has total accuracy. The existing structure of American jury duty obviously violates the Constitutional rights of jurors. Anyone who lost an American jury duty business model trial can very easily say
“ . . . None of my peers would serve on a jury for these mileage and pay rates. That proves that I never got a fair trial!”
and then demand a mistrial to throw away the verdict. Full-time government employees have a really easy way to fix this. They only need to pay highest prevailing minimum wage and highest possible mileage rates to jurors, for all hours worked and all miles driven, with zero tax and zero tax paperwork. In California, the legislator mileage rate of tax-free 53 cents a mile - the latest rate - becomes the required jury duty mileage rate. Government employees must also pay back jury duty wages and mileage. Government employees must also audit all jury duty hiring systems, focusing on the jury duty summons history information, and relevant jury duty service history information, of those people. The auditors must release those audit results, without restriction - immediately. This information will help show whether or not jury duty service operates in a fair way. Lastly, I expect prosecution and punishment for everyone - both inside and outside of government - involved in any sort of jury duty service corruption. Government employees will not successfully hire me for a jury duty temp job until they choose to make these fair, reasonable jury duty reforms, to fix the zero-day flaws of jury duty. In addition, government employees will have an increasingly hard time hiring other Americans as jury duty temp employees. If they drag their feet, it will become impossible soon enough. Americans have every incentive, and plenty of Constitutional rights, to resign from and avoid the present structure of American jury duty. That will destroy the American jury duty trial business model.
It might look like I want the jury duty trial system to completely implode. No way. Since we opened for business in 1789, American civilization has relied on citizen jury duty. I would never volunteer for jury duty, but I would accept my role and responsibility as a juror, and I would do more than my best work in that role. In return, I have expectations of my own. I expect government to see me as a valued partner, working in a job that I did not apply to get. I expect government - as my jury duty employer - to pay me highest possible minimum wage and fair mileage compensation, with zero tax and zero tax paperwork. I expect full jury duty history information disclosure for everyone who ever touched political campaign contribution money. Government, lawyers, and law schools all should have known better. They should have noticed and fixed these problems years ago. They certainly all had - and have - the means, motive, and opportunity to do this, and I expect them to do it. If they decide that they don’t feel like it, they can expect nonviolent jury duty strikes, in California and across the nation. My government employees, the lawyer industry, and the law school industry all completely and exclusively own these problems. Working together, they can easily solve these problems. The choice to do so is theirs alone.
