Cheyenne
County Clerk of the District Court
Jury
Information
Welcome to jury duty in Cheyenne County District
Court. We will do all that we can to make you comfortable and answer any
questions you might have as you fulfill this very important duty of your
citizenship.
Jurors are chosen at random
from current lists of persons age 19 or older, living in Cheyenne County, Nebraska,
and are either registered voters or licensed drivers. Some people are chosen several times during their lifetime,
others are never chosen. If you are a registered voter or licensed driver, you
have the same chance of being chosen as someone else who meets this criteria.
If you are a prospective juror, you will have received a summons
requiring you to appear for jury duty during the next jury term of Cheyenne
County District Court. You may never need to appear. This is because cases scheduled for trial, will on occasion,
settle prior to the trial date.
Likewise, it is possible that cases scheduled for trial will, by
necessity, sometimes be continued.
Whenever cases are scheduled for trial this office will provide you with
notice at the earliest possible opportunity, and at a minimum of 10 days prior
to the jury.
You are one of a larger
panel, or venire, that have been summoned for jury duty during this term of
court. From this larger panel, a jury
of typically twelve persons will ultimately be selected to serve as jurors in a
given case. In addition, one or two
additional alternate jurors may also be selected.
When you report for jury
duty, please check in at the District Court office located on the west side of
the Courthouse. The jury selection
process will then commence. As a
general rule, the jury selection process will last through the morning. However, this might vary depending on the
nature of the case being tried. After
jury selection has been completed, those members of the panel who are not
selected as jurors or alternates will be excused, and will be notified and
reminded when to return for jury duty for the next scheduled trial. During the jury selection process the judge
will usually indicate an estimated length of time expected to complete the
trial.
A prospective juror is required by law to appear for jury duty on all
dates summoned. However, the judge may
excuse a juror only upon showing of undue hardship, extreme inconvenience, or
public necessity. Strict proof of undue
hardship, extreme inconvenience, or public necessity will be required by the
judge prior to considering excusing a prospective juror. Jurors are rarely excused because of work
obligations. In this regard, our law
provides that any person summoned for jury duty shall not be subject to
discharge of employment, loss of pay, loss of sick leave, loss of vacation
time, or any other form of penalty, as a result of his or her absence from the
employment due to such jury duty. If
you need to make a request to be excused from jury duty for any given trial,
you must make a written application for postponement of jury service. The judge will then review your request, and
you will be advised of his decision.
Consideration is given to all full-time students. You will need to provide proof of your
status as a student. Please include
this information with your application for postponement.
You will be paid $35.00 per
day for jury service, plus .555 cents per mile.
Our office will try to make
your jury service informative and pleasant.
If you have questions, please feel free to call our office at
308.254.2814; or email us at debra.hume@nebraska.gov.