My previous blog post talked about sources of psychological distress from jury duty, and this one, as a continuation, will explore possible recourse for jurors. Generally, there are two major categories for relief of mental distress from jury duty: jurors' self-help and external help from courts, government agencies, or other non-governmental organizations.
In the case that a traumatized juror who regularly receives psychological therapy, the obvious answer is that this juror can just lash it all out in the next session. However, this happens far and few between. Firstly, there has always been a stigma surrounding psycho-therapy. Secondly, very few people realize that their health insurance policy actually covers therapy sessions. At the conclusion of a potentially traumatizing trial, perhaps the court can remind jurors to monitor their psychological distress levels due to the trial, and that their health insurance policy is likely to provide some coverage for any potential treatment that they might need. A reminder for someone to monitor their mental health is sometimes the first line of defense for their mental health.
A former juror in Canada, however, took self-help to a different level. Soon after serving on a jury for a criminal case and viewing evidence such as "scenes of rape, photographic evidence of the crime, and heard eyewitness testimony from the defendant's accomplice," she started to "lash out at her children, suffered from depression, had flashbacks to disturbing pieces of evidence, and experienced short-term memory loss and difficulties with concentration." She was diagnosed to have PTSD by a psychiatrist. She then took self-help a bit further: she sued the Ministry of the Attorney General of Ontario for breaching the duty of care to a juror. The case was settled in 2016. Similarly, another former juror sued the Ontario Attorney General and the Canadian federal government on a similar claim in 2016.
The Ontario government, following the settlement of the cases, quickly launched a Juror Support Program which provides free counseling services to anyone served on a jury in early 2017. The jurors are informed of the program both at the beginning and at the conclusion of a trial.
Similarly, in the United States, courts are starting to provide similar resources to help jurors cope with traumatizing jury experience. For example, in federal courts, the judges can elect to extend a jurors' service so that they can receive counseling under the federal Employee Assistance Program, also known as EAP. Such extension is just an extension of their duties on an administrative basis, and does not extend the jurors' time serving on a jury. This service was initiated by a jury administrator in the District of Idaho in 2008 following a kidnapping and murdering trial, but it seems like courts only elect them in very high profile trials and the media seldom covers the service.
Several states, including Texas, North Carolina, and Minnesota, are also experimenting with similar counseling programs for jurors. (See also a short summary by The Atlantic here.) However, the accessibility and coverage of such programs vary widely. For example, in Texas, although the House Bill 608 allows counties to offer counseling services to jurors, the law does not provide for state funding and does not make such program mandatory. As a result, only a handful of counties offer such service.
As I mentioned in the previous blog post, the psychological distress that jurors suffer from some trials deserves a lot of attention that it currently does. Addressing the issue and helping jurors cope may go a long way in promoting the civic duty, and hopefully unloads the discouragement that scares potential jurors away.
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