Scott County goes live with Show-Me Jury system

BENTON, Mo. — The Scott County Circuit Court has officially gone “live” on the State of Missouri’s Show-Me Jury notification system.

“Scott County is the first in our area to go live with Show-Me Jury,” said Scott County Circuit Clerk Christy Hency. “We are paving the way.”

The new system was piloted in 2017 in St. Louis City Circuit Court and began rolling out to additional courts this year.

Through the system, potential Scott County jurors for the Nov. 5, 2018, through March 1, 2019, jury term will receive a different kind of jury summons notice in the mail than in decades past, Hency said.

On Thursday Scott County Circuit Court began sending out the notifications to its first set of potential jurors with instructions to complete their qualification questionnaire online, Hency said. Jurors will have 10 days, as they have in the past, to complete the new online process, she said.

“It is our hope that jurors find this system to be much quicker than filling out the paper form as it allows instant submission to the court,” Hency said. “In addition, because the process is online, it can be completed at the jurors convenience whether that is sitting at their home computer or on their handheld while waiting in line at their local checkout.”

Understandably, Hency said, there will be a percentage of jurors for whom the electronic process will be inconvenient or even impossible and the county has a solution for that ready to go.

“Jurors unable to complete the online process can simply notify the circuit clerk’s office for accommodations,” Hency said. “They are welcome to use the public access station in our office to complete their online process.”

Jurors will now have the option to choose how they wish to be notified — by text or email — when they have been randomly selected for a jury trial.

“This, in our opinion, is epic,” Hency said. “Jurors no longer have to worry about checking their mail daily or if they’ve missed a notice. While completing the online process, jurors can provide a cell phone number or email address if they wish electronic notification of when and where to appear as well as cancellations.”

In addition to user convenience, Show-Me Jury will allow great cost savings to the citizens of Scott County, Hency said.

Other Southeast Missouri counties are preparing to go live with the new system.

Cape Girardeau County and St. Francois County are scheduled to go live in 2019, Hency said.

Perry, Madison, Bollinger, Wayne, Stoddard, New Madrid, Mississippi, Pemiscot, Ste. Genevieve and Dunklin are not set to go live until 2020, according to Show-Me Jury’s implementation map.