Since the pandemic started, we have assisted our clients in hybrid in-person/online jury selections. Hardship declarations show that most jurors are not seeking to be excused because of fears about COVID-19. Instead, the jurors are seeking to be excused through hardship because their lives are upended by the pandemic – children who are home from school, elderly relatives removed from elder-care facilities, unemployment or severely reduced work hours.
Of the 65 hardship requests we reviewed, only 9 expressed fear of contracting COVID-19, and the reasons they offered were because they were in a high-risk group, or had to take public transit to the courthouse, which they believed increased their risk of exposure. Though the pandemic does raise concerns about health and safety during in-person jury trials, the overwhelming majority of hardship questionnaires do not list concerns about COVID-19 as the basis for a hardship.
One truism of jury selection is, “jurors who are less likely to complete hardship forms are more likely to serve.” In the COVID era, who are those jurors? Other posts here explore this question, and are a must-read for any attorneys litigating cases during the pandemic.