For years, the citizens of Dallas County could ignore a jury summons without facing any consequences. But that changed on July 18, when a new Jury Services Court issued four show-cause contempt orders to people who allegedly failed to show up to perform their civic duty on more than one occasion.
Jury Services Court is a pilot project started in June by Dallas County’s 13 district court judges to boost the low response rate to jury summonses. “We realized that our response rate for jury duty is crappy,” explains 191st District Court Judge Gena Slaughter, who issued the four show-cause orders.
