Jury Pay

Due to the recession, people are requesting an excuse for jury duty for extreme financial hard ship. That's because the fee is often ten or twenty-two dollars a day and if the person is self-employed, they cannot afford to lose a days work.

The ancient Athenians paid common citizens the equivalent of half a days wages for an ordinary laborer. They had to use rope to keep people away when too many came.

RBefore I became interested in participatory democracy issues, I always thought there should be two shifts of juries and courts. One would be the conventional nine to five. The other should be four hours a night during the week night plus eight to ten hours a day on the weekend--for those working conventional jobs that they could not afford to miss.