Pierce County jurors will now get paid much more as part of pilot program

Pierce County jurors will now get paid much more to participate.

The county is trying a new pilot program that pays jurors at the County-City building $100 per day, along with mileage reimbursement, according to a news release from Washington Courts.

The County-City building includes the Pierce County District Court, the Superior Court and the Tacoma Municipal Court.

“I think overall a successful pilot program would be an increased jury pool,” Laurie Louise Sale, a court program analyst for the Administrative Office of the Court’s (AOC) Office of Judicial and Legislative Relations, said via the release. “People actually saying yes to the summons because they’re going to have more money in their pocket at the end of the day, and feel that they can take a step away from their daily job position and commit to jury duty without doing real damage to their daily budget, weekly budget, what have you.”

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The pay, according to Washington Courts, replaces the typical $10 paid to jurors in Pierce County and the majority of courts throughout Washington. The extra funds come from the legislature, which appropriated nearly $1.6 million to Pierce County for the seven-month pilot, paying $90 of the $100 daily rate for jurors while the county continues to pay the $10.

Administrative Office of the Courts staff has partnered with Pierce County to distribute surveys to jurors to analyze the impact of the pay increase.

According to Washington Courts, once the pilot program is over, the survey results will be compiled into a report which will be presented to the legislature along with recommendations for a permanent pay adjustment for jurors. The Supreme Court Minority and Justice Commission hopes to present the report to the legislature in 2026.

“The pilot program will measure whether higher juror pay reduces barriers to jury participation and in turn improves jury diversity,” the release stated.

Washington Courts said the pilot is a step toward increasing a pay rate that hasn’t gone up since 1959. It added that if the Pierce County pilot is not enough evidence to increase the pay, the legislature may opt for more pilot programs.

“The fact that the legislature has looked at this issue and that they’ve put $1.6 million into seeing if reducing this barrier, in particular, of straight income, has the ability to increase the diversity of our juries, that’s huge,” Chris Gaddis, Pierce County Superior Court Administrator, said via the release. “It’s a big win for the court system and it’s a big win for the public.”

Washington Courts cited a statewide juror demographic survey, conducted by Seattle University in partnership with the Minority and Justice Commission that found combined household income significantly impacted a person’s ability to participate as a juror.

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The survey found Black, American Indian and Alaskan Native survey respondents were underrepresented and 64% of respondents indicated a conflict or hardship prevented them from participating. Therefore, the survey administrators recommended increasing juror pay.

The Pierce County juror pilot program started on Monday and will run through May 2025.

Julia Dallas is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read her stories here. Follow Julia on X here and email her here.