How to protect the jury system?

Question

No-one wants to serve on a jury, and the brightest and best-connected people find ways to get off it. That leaves the rest. This isn't good for anyone. How can the system be protected? Should jury members be paid a large sum in compensation (but then they might prolong trials to make more money...)

What is the answer?

Answer 1

One way would be to eliminate all but serious hardship excuses. It is too easy to get out of jury duty.

Another idea is to randomly select the people for the jury, and only let the judge eliminate people, not the lawyers. See, the lawyers do not want bright people on the jury.

Answer 2

Let the unemployed and homeless serve on the jury.  They could use the $12 a day.  Full-timers with benefits get paid anyway, so they might like the change in routine.  Part-timers really lose out; their employers don't pay them, and they can really fall behind if they're living paycheck to paycheck.

I'm for juries in criminal cases, but when it comes to slip and falls, etc., we shouldn't waste hard-working people's time.

Answer 3

I think we need a peaceful revolution as is suggeted by Burning P's question on Yahoo! Answers

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...