Local jury system gets overhaul

Crook County’s courts will soon be switching over to a new computer program to manage jury pools – a system that will not only make life easier for the clerks, but will also streamline the process for members of the community who are called to jury duty.

The new system is called Agile Jury and is housed at the Wyoming Supreme Court, Clerk of District Court Tina Wood explains. All district and circuit courts around the state are now able to access the program, which creates jury panels from resident information and updates the summons form sent out to jurors once the names have been selected.

Perhaps the biggest change that the community will notice is the opportunity to fill out that information online, says Wood. Until now, potential jurors have been asked to mail in their paper summons forms.

“With this new system, they went to a universal form across the State of Wyoming instead of each one of us having our own form. County to county, it’s the same form, and they will have the opportunity to fill it out online and submit it to us, or they can do it the old fashioned way – we will send it to them still and they can mail it back in,” Wood says. “The way this is headed is to be more online.”

In the same spirit, the system opens new avenues for the clerks to alert jurors when their names have been selected for a specific trial and let them know when to report to the courthouse.

“The notifications will go out either a voicemail, a text message or an email, so when people enter the form online or check the box when they send [the paper form] back in that they want to be notified, we can hit a button that sends out the notice there is a jury trial,” she says.

Until now, Wood has used a robocall service to do this, sending out a standard message to let jurors know they must appear on a specific date – or, conversely, that a jury trial has been cancelled.

“I still send a notice out to people saying there is a jury trial but the reason I started the phone calls was because people don’t check their mail anymore because everything is online,” she says.

“I will continue to do that because there are people who don’t access email or the internet.”

The new system also brings options to streamline the process during an actual trial. For example, says Wood, “When they come in the morning of the jury trial and have to sign their vouchers, there is barcoding and we can get a scanner and click them in so we know who is here and who is not here. Hopefully it’ll be quicker.”

It’s a blessing coming at this time, says Wood, as 2019 has seen more cases move ahead to jury trial in this county than ever before.

“This past year has been extremely busy with jury trials. This is the most we’ve ever had in Crook County in a year’s time,” she says. “I’m very excited for this program to be implemented because it will make my job much easier.”

It’s also not a moment too soon, she adds. The old system is badly out of date and a crash could be devastating for the county’s records.

“I have had a computer system for about 20 years. Right now it is housed on a computer that is outdated and I cannot update that computer,” she says.

The new system combines all the actions a clerk must take on behalf of a jury panel into one place. Before now, due to compatibility issues, Wood says data had to be inputted in one program, converted to another, sent to a different computer to print and so on.

“It’s been a real challenge,” she smiles wryly.

Juror information will now be available at the click of a button, making it easier for the courts to be accountable.

“I can print any kind of reports; say if someone wanted to know how much jury mileage was or how many jury trials [are scheduled]. It’s a really robust system that will allow reporting,” Wood says.

Clerks of district, circuit and supreme courts around Wyoming vetted the available programs and felt Agile Jury was the best for Wyoming, she explains. It was then given a trial run by Laramie and Platte Counties for around one year.

“For the most part, they are happy with it and have got all the bugs worked out hopefully for the rest of us that are going on it,” she says.

For circuit courts, the new system is mandatory, but Wood feels it’s a positive change that most of Wyoming’s courts will want to make.

“I would say all of the district courts are probably going to go to this system. There are seven counties right now on it and there were four at my training and there will be another one in December,” she says.

Wood asked to be among the first to adopt the system to safeguard Crook County’s voter information.

“I specifically requested it because of my computer and the possibility of it crashing,” she says.

Circuit Court will likely change to the new system in time for its new panel of jurors in September, says Clerk of Circuit Court Cindi Baudhuin. Wood expects to switch over earlier, as she will be sending out summonses and questionnaires to a new group of jurors this week.

“My term for jurors will begin August 1. Right now, we have a jury trial scheduled for the second week of August,” she says.

“I have to be prepared to send those notices out to those jurors if it goes ahead. The first step in that is those juror questionnaires.”

This particular panel will not serve a full year, Wood says. Jury panels generally remain in place for one year but, due to the high number of jury trials, a second pool of jurors had to be called in for 2019.

“My judges have said they would prefer I do a panel through April 1 because then Crook, Campbell and Weston will be on the same jury term as far as the District Court. In order to get me there, I will do August 1 through March 31,” Wood explains.

“This upcoming one will be August 1 to March 31 to get me back on track.”