Juror Letter

Dear Fellow Citizen:

You have been selected for jury service at random, from a list prepared from voter registration and state driver’s license listings. You may be called to serve as a prospective juror during a four-month period. You may not be selected to serve at all due to peremptory challenge; this is not uncommon. 

If you are selected to serve on a jury, you will be excused at the conclusion of the trial with no further jury service required for at least one year. If you are not selected as a juror, you will be subject to call for the rest of the term. Jury Trials are usually from one to three days in duration although some can last longer. When you arrive, we will do our best to estimate how long the trial will take.

Your first reaction may be to think of all the ways that such service will burden or inconvenience you and to search for excuses to use in an attempt to get off jury duty. Before you advance any further in considering excuses, please think seriously about your decision. This is your court system. Some of the most qualified jurors are busy people. Please bear in mind that the quality of justice in your court system will never be any better than the composite intelligence and wisdom of its juries. Don’t let your court system down today when it needs you. Although you may not think of it now, it is possible that you could someday be involved in a legal action. If that should occur, I am confident that you will desire to have the most diligent and most impartial jury possible to hear your case.

If you qualify, you have the opportunity to serve your community by participating in the judicial system as a juror. In order that all litigants entitled to trial by jury shall have their right to juries selected at random from a fair cross section of the community in the district wherein the court convenes, we must have the assistance of people like you. The law provides that all citizens shall have the opportunity to be considered for service on juries and the public policy of this state is that jury service is the solemn obligation of all qualified citizens.

The new Kansas Statewide jury standards call for the elimination of all automatic excuses or exemptions from jury service for persons determined eligible, however, we do recognize that occasional circumstances exist when persons cannot serve.

If you feel you have a problem which limits your ability to serve, please indicate why you should not serve on the Juror Qualification Questionnaire.

In the event that you are eligible, we will do everything in our power to minimize your inconvenience. 

A summons will be issued to you approximately twenty days prior to a scheduled trial. You should appear in response to the summons at the time and date indicated. If you should have problems concerning the trial date once you have received your summons, please contact the Jury Coordinator immediately.

If a parent should receive a questionnaire for a student who is currently attending school out-of-town, please indicate this on the questionnaire form and return it to us. If a deceased member of your family should receive a questionnaire, please accept our apologies and return the questionnaire stating this information on the top of the form. If you do not live in the county for which you received this letter, please indicate this on the top of the form and return it to our office. If you should have any questions other than those outlined in this letter, please contact our Jury Coordinator.

We look forward to having you with us and hope that you will look forward to your summons as an opportunity to learn more about the government that serves you.