LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Lancaster County is in the final stages of moving its jury commissioner’s employees to the district court clerk’s office in a move officials say will help free up needed space and replace an aging file system.
The changes also mean the commissioner’s employees will be closer to prospective jurors, employers and others who have questions about jury service in the county, the Lincoln Journal Star (https://bit.ly/2gF72YS ) reported. The jury commissioner’s job includes answering such questions, and the move means the commissioner’s two employees will be just steps away from where potential jurors report for jury selection.
County Court Clerk Troy Hawk, who is also the county’s jury commissioner, said the $60,000 project will also find extra room for juvenile court files, which are currently stored in a cabinet in an office hallway.
By statute, the jury commissioner’s duties can be attached to the district court clerk’s office or the election commissioner. Election Commissioner Dave Shively agreed that it made more sense for the jury commission to be at the courthouse rather than the Election Commissioner’s office, and Hawk noted that Shively’s focus is on elections, not trials.
Hawk said he would also like to modernize the process by allowing jurors to respond to jury summons online or use recorded calls to notify jurors when they need to report. He said the project also includes replacing an old motorized filing system with a new system on tracks, which he said is cheaper and takes up a fraction of the space.
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Information from: Lincoln Journal Star, https://www.journalstar.com
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