Federal Jury Service
General Public Notice
General Public Notice

PUBLIC NOTICE

REGARDING THE METHOD AND

MANNER OF RANDOM JURY SELECTION

Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1861, all litigants “have the right to grand and petit jurors selected at random from a fair cross section of the community.”  A master jury wheel is created by selecting names at random from the merged list of general election voter registration lists along with drivers license and identification card lists, after the elimination of known duplicates, from all counties within the relevant division.  Then, names are randomly drawn periodically from the master jury wheel to receive juror qualification questionnaires and summonses to report for grand or petit jury service.  Individuals’ answers to these questionnaires determine whether they are legally qualified and available to serve.  If so, those individuals are expected to report pursuant to the Court’s instructions.  If not, those individuals are notified not to report or are postponed to another time.  All of the selections are carried out through a properly programmed electronic data processing system for pure randomized selection.  The pure randomized process ensures that the mathematical odds of any single name being picked are substantially equal.