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Juror Resources

Juror Orientation

jurors in a courtroomIf you are scheduled for jury duty, you will attend an Orientation session the day you report. After jury orientation you will either be selected for a jury panel or excused. Please view the Jury Reporting Information for when and where to report for jury orientation.

To lessen the impact of jury service, our court has created a system in which jurors only have to serve on one trial to complete their service. Most trials do not last more than a couple of days. If a juror reports for duty and is available to serve but is not selected for a trial, that juror will be released and his or her service will be complete. A very small minority of jurors are summoned for grand jury, which involves a two-week commitment. Once a juror has served as instructed by the court, the juror's obligation is complete for a two-year period.

We thank those who have spent the time -- and completed the hard work -- of serving on a jury.

FAQs

YES. It is important that you always respond to a jury duty summons. Even if you feel you have received the summons in error you need to respond to the summons or contact the Jury Manager. As long as there is an outstanding juror summons with your name on it you are responsible for contacting the court. Just because you respond does not mean you will have to serve. You can request to be deferred or excused from service, but you do have to respond to every summons you receive.​

We get juror information at the start of each year from a combination of voter registration and Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) records. If you were a registered voter in Linn County as of November of last year, or if your driver’s license or state ID has a Linn County address, you may be summoned for jury duty. Even if you moved out of Linn County 9 months ago you may receive a summons for jury duty for Linn. If you are no longer a Linn County resident when you receive your summons, please respond to your summons and include your current address and you will be excused from jury duty. If you don’t update the address on your driver’s license and your voter registration you may continue to receive summons from Linn County long after you have moved away.

Our current Jury computer system is unable to distinguish that North Albany is not in Linn County. We know that North Albany is actually in Benton County, so North Albany residents should respond to a Linn County jury duty summons and let us know that you were summoned in error. Even if you no longer live in the state of Oregon, you shouldn’t ignore your summons. Just contact us and we will excuse you once we have your current physical address. 

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Regular (Petit) Jury Duty: These are the types of juries you generally see on television and in movies.  Petit jurors serve for a two-week term and might be required to come to the courthouse for one (or more) days during those 2 weeks.  If you receive a Petit Summons, you will need to check the jury schedule for both of your 2 weeks of service.  Most Petit jurors only serve one day of the 2 weeks, but it is possible that you will have to report on more than 1 day.

Grand Jury:  Unlike Petit jurors, Grand Jurors never need to check the Jury Schedule.  Potential Grand Jurors will report for a 1-hour orientation where 24 people will be selected to serve.  Those who are not selected to serve will be excused at the end of Orientation and won’t need to come back to the courthouse. 
Grand Juries are very different from Petit juries.  Grand Jurors listen to information about a variety of different cases brought by the District Attorney.  Grand Jurors listen to evidence and decide if that evidence is strong enough to charge someone with a crime.  Grand Jurors don’t decide the outcome of the cases they hear, but they make decisions about which cases should be tried and which should not.  Selected Grand Jurors serve 1 day a week (either Wednesday or Thursday) for 8 or 9 weeks.  

Special Trial:  A summons for a “Special Trial” is like a Petit Summons, except the summons is for just one case.  Anyone who isn’t selected to serve on that one trial will be excused at the end of juror selection.  Special trials usually have a special orientation to fill out a questionnaire and then return at a later date for jury selection.


You are still required to respond. Respond as soon as you can (even if you are a year late!). Responding late is much better than not responding at all. We know that sometimes people move and it takes a while to get forwarded mail or that sometimes a summons might slide under your car seat and be lost for a few weeks. We will always work with you to find a time you can serve or assist with your request to defer or excuse you from jury duty, but you have to contact us before we can help.

In the event that you don’t show up on the day you are scheduled, you will be marked “failure to appear”.  If this is your first time to fail to appear, you will be rescheduled into a new term and sent a new summons.  If you have failed to appear more than once, you may be required to appear before a judge.  Remember that failure to appear for jury duty can result in contempt of court charges as provided in ​ ORS 10.245(3), (4), and (6).

Petit Summons: You could be scheduled to serve one or more days during a 2-week period.  Most jurors only serve one day during the 2 weeks, but any juror seated on a trial will serve until that trial is over.  Your Jury Summons will list the dates you may be asked to serve. Occasionally there is a very heavy trial calendar and some jurors may be asked to report more than once during their 2 weeks of service, but that is not typical. Some trials last more than one day and if you are on the jury for such a trial you would have to serve until the trial concludes. We work very hard to schedule jurors so that nobody has to report for more than one trial, but occasionally jurors may be asked to come in for a second trial.

Grand Jury Summons: All jurors attend a 1-hour orientation session where 24 jurors will be selected to serve.  Anyone not selected will be excused from jury duty for at least the next 2 years.  Selected jurors will serve one day a week for 2 months.

Special Jury Summons: A Special summons is for a single trial that is usually longer than our typical trials.  A large group of jurors are called in to fill out questionnaires and attend an orientation session.  Jurors then return at a later date for juror selection.  The jurors who are selected will serve on the trial until it is over.  Anyone who isn’t selected will be excused for at least the next 2 years.


Petit Summons: You will need to check the jury schedule during your 2 weeks.  The schedule for the upcoming week is available after 4:30 PM on Friday and is available all weekend by calling the Jury Line 541-812-8809​ or checking our website (www.courts.oregon.gov/linn​).  The daily jury schedule is available Monday - Thursday after 4:30 PM. 

The recorded schedule on the Jury Line will list a range of juror numbers (such as “jurors 350 – 500”), so listen for a group of numbers that includes your juror number.  The online jury schedule will list each individual juror number that has been called.

Check the jury schedule for your juror number the weekend before the first week of your 2-week term.  If your number is not listed for the upcoming week, check it again the next weekend.  If your juror number is not called for either week of your 2-week term, then you are finished with jury duty and don’t need to check the jury schedule any longer.

If your juror number is listed on the schedule for the upcoming week, take note of which day you need to report.  It is very important that you check the jury schedule again the night before your service.  Any time after 4:30 PM the day before you are scheduled, you can check to confirm that you are still required to come in.  The schedule will also tell you what time and where you need to report on your scheduled day.  Trials are sometimes canceled the day before they are supposed to start.  We would hate to see you report to the courthouse on a day when you aren’t needed!


Avoid parking in areas where there are “30 minute” or “3 hour parking” signs.  There are several locations near the courthouse that allow all day parking.  The west, south, and east sides of the courthouse have all day parking available on-street.  Jurors are also welcome to park in the parking lot across from the front of the courthouse that is labeled “County Business”.  You can also park in areas with signs that say “All Day Customer/Employee Parking”.  If you park in one of those spots you should display the “JUROR” parking slip (that is included with your term letter) on the dash of your vehicle.  View courthouse parking map.

Anyone with a disability who needs accommodation to participate in jury service should advise the Jury Manager of the disability and type of accommodation needed at least one week before your service. There are several reserved handicapped parking spaces near the courthouse for those jurors who have the appropriate placard/permit. An elevator is available for any jurors with mobility concerns. Jurors with hearing or speech impairment may request an assistive communication device while on jury duty. Other services may be available. Please check with the Jury Manager.

We understand that some people can’t serve every day of their term.  There are dentist appointments, sales conferences, vacations, and other obligations.  If there are particular days during your service period when you can’t serve, it is very important that you list those days when you complete your Juror Response form.  

Sometimes conflicts come up at the last minute.  It is important to contact the Jury Manager before the schedule is posted for that week whenever possible.  You need to notify the Jury Manager as soon as possible if something comes up that would conflict with the 2-week term you were assigned to.  Requests for time off will be granted for such emergencies whenever possible, but the sooner you tell us the easier it will be to adjust your schedule.  You should NOT wait until you see which day you are scheduled before requesting days off.  We may simply be unable to grant last minute time off requests.  


If you are on an out-of-town work assignment, travelling, or have other plans that would make it impossible to serve any of the weeks during your jury duty term, your service can be deferred to a different month.  Anyone can request one deferral for any reason.  Requests for a second deferral will be considered based upon your unique personal circumstances, but second deferral are almost never granted.​

Any jurors 70 years of age or older will be excused from jury duty at their request.  Anyone who is currently breastfeeding will also be excused upon request.  If there are other circumstances in your life that would make serving on jury duty an undue hardship, you may request to be excused from jury duty.  Any request to be excused from service should be listed on your Juror Response form in the comments section.

If you request to be excused for reasons other than being 70+ years old or are currently breastfeeding, you may be asked to provide additional documentation before a decision can be made to excuse.  For example, if you request to be excused because serving would cause a financial hardship, you may be asked to provide a letter from your employer listing your work schedule and their policy about paying employees who serve on jury duty.  Another example would be if you request to be excused for medical reasons, you may be asked to provide a letter from your doctor.  We will consider all requests to be excused and will respond to the request as quickly as possible.  Please do not send documents unless we request them.


If you are “deferred” from jury duty that means that your jury service has been delayed to another time period.  For example, if you are a student who gets a summons to serve during your current semester, you could request to be deferred until the summer when you are out of school.

If you are “excused” from jury duty it means that you will not be required to serve at all.  Being excused from jury duty once does not automatically excuse you from future service (Oregon currently has no way to “permanently excuse” someone from jury duty).  You might be excused because of an upcoming major surgery, but 2 years later you may be summoned again when you are healthy and able to serve.  

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If something unexpectedly changes and you find that you are no longer able to serve on jury duty, please contact the Jury Manager as soon as possible. Whenever possible we will reassign you to another 2 week term, or another 2 month period, if needed. You can also request to be excused from duty based on the change in your circumstances. The Jury Manager will review those types of excusals on a case-by-case basis. You may be asked to supply additional documentation to support your request.

Don’t worry!  The Jury Manager can resend paperwork to you or give you any information you might need over the phone.  Just call 541-812-8809​​ or email: ​lin.jury@ojd.state.or.us.

We understand that unexpected things can happen without advanced notice.  If something happens that prevents you from serving on a day when you were called to the courthouse, contact the Jury Manager as soon as possible.  Requests for last minute problems are approved whenever possible and usually just mean rescheduling to a different day, but you should have alternative plans so that you can report for duty if at all possible.  ​

​Yes.  Judges, attorneys, and law enforcement officers are all required to serve on jury duty.​

Any juror who is scheduled to serve and attends is paid $10 per day for each of the first 2 days of service and $25 for each day of service after that.  Jurors are also paid $.20 per mile they travel (round trip) between home and the courthouse.  Anyone who uses public transit to attend jury duty will also be compensated for the amount you pay to come to the courthouse and return home.  Jurors are compensated for travel every day they are required to serve.​

Wi-fi service is available in the Jury Assembly Room and in most parts of the courthouse via our free wi-fi network.  You are not allowed to use wireless devices in the courtroom or  jury deliberation room, but you are welcome to use your devices outside the courtroom while on breaks or lunch and before your jury service begins.​

You aren't required to serve on a jury in Oregon more than once every 2 years.  If you have served on jury duty in the last 2 years in any Circuit Court or Federal Court in Oregon, you can be excused from jury duty upon request.  Just respond to your summons with the required information.  These different courts don't have a way to communicate jury duty information, so we will not automatically know if you have served in the last 2 years.  Municipal (city) courts do not apply to this rule.

Although you aren't required to serve on a jury more than once every 2 years, some people feel that they get summoned a lot more than friends or neighbors.  That is possible.  Because of the number of people who fail to respond to their summons to jury duty we may have to summon as much as 25% of the adult population of Linn County every year!  The best way to ensure that you are not called to jury duty every few years is to encourage your friends and neighbors in Linn County to respond to their jury summons as soon as they receive it.  That not only ensures that they are complying with the law but will ultimately mean that we can summon fewer people every year.  That would be great for everyone!​

There definitely is!  You can fax any requested paperwork to 541-928-2711​.​ If you are asked to provide documentation from a third party (such as your doctor or your employer), they can fax that documentation directly to the Jury Manager.  That should save a trip to your doctor's (or boss') office.

The amount you are paid is based on the information you provide on the Juror Certification form that is completed during jury orientation.  If a question is marked incorrectly it could result in an incorrect check.  There might also be a data entry error that caused you to receive the wrong amount.  If you feel that your check is for the wrong amount, or if the check is long overdue, please call the Jury Manager right away and we will get to the bottom of the mystery.​

Yes.  Depending on the nature of your convictions, you may be limited in what types of cases you can hear but having convictions (including felony convictions) does NOT disqualify you from serving on jury duty.​

​Yes.  While we understand that serving during a school term can be inconvenient, students are generally not excused unless they are enrolled in a year-round program (such as medical school or some trade schools).  If you are a student, you have the option to reschedule your jury duty up to 1 year after your original summons date.  Choose your new month carefully since additional requests to be rescheduled will be denied.​

​Unless your unit is currently deployed, you are required to serve.  If your summons is for a time when you will be participating in mandatory military training, you should ask to be rescheduled to a different time of the year.​

Security

Security at the Courthouse is provided by Linn County Sheriff’s Office. Security equipment in use at the Courthouse includes magnetometers (walk-through metal detectors), x-ray scanners, and hand held metal detectors. If you have a pacemaker, tell the security officer about it before you enter the metal detector. The security screening process can create long lines of people waiting to enter the courthouse during peak hours.
 
The main objective of Courthouse security is to maintain a safe and secure environment for everyone in the building. Everyone’s cooperation is needed in order to achieve this very important goal. Weapons of any kind are strictly prohibited and may be confiscated. Among items prohibited from court facilities are guns, knives, ammunition, pepper spray, mace, razor blades, illegal drugs and any other type of dangerous or hazardous material or property. A variety of items may be prohibited because they are hazardous or could be used as potential weapons. These include any object that is sharp, pointed or with a cutting blade regardless of length. If you are unsure if an item is allowed or not, the safest option is to not bring it into the courthouse.
 
Courthouse security will not hold unauthorized items for return later. Any prohibited item that is brought to the courthouse will be taken from you and permanently destroyed. 

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