Useful links

General Reference

This entry from the online encyclopedia Wikipedia provides an overview of jury selection, the trial process, and juror duties, with some information specific to the U.S., Britain, France, and Japan. Note: Wikipedia provides user-contributed information, edited by other users rather than a central editorial board.  For more information, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikipedia:about.

This entry from the Columbia Encyclopedia discusses the modern Anglo-American jury and its development.

Zimmerman’s Research Guides provide basic sources for researching different aspects of law. There is a guide on Jury Instructions and one on Jury Verdicts and Settlements.


Organizations

The Center for Jury Studies of the National Center for State Courts has a Web site that is full of important jury-related information. Click here for a guide to the site's content.

The American Bar Association is the U.S.’s voluntary national professional organization of lawyers and judges. The ABA's American Jury Initiative aims to "strengthen the jury as a democratic institution and enhance Americans’ understanding of its role in our system of law and government." It includes a statement of principles for juries and jury trials, educational resources, juror appreciation materials, a media kit, and more. The ABA's Web site also includes other information for the general public, such as a collection of resources and background information about juries, this fact sheet on the jury system and a  directory of state and local bar associations.

In 1992 the American Board of Trial Advocates, an organization committed to preserving the civil jury trial system, passed the “Juror Bill of Rights.”

The American Juror  is a Web site “dedicated to informing Texas citizens about jury service,” created by the Texas Young Lawyers Association.

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has developed the Jury Patriotism Act, model legislation to make U.S. jury service less burdensome and more difficult to avoid. An ALEC article discussing the need for jury reform and the goals of the Jury Patriotism Act is available here.  An article analyzing the act by G. Thomas Munsterman of the National Center for State Courts is available here.

The American Society of Trial Consultants consists of researchers, educators and trial consultants. Their Web site includes conference information (and sales of sessions on tape) and a directory of consultants. Members can also access their quarterly newsletter.

The New York-focused Citizens Jury Project (CJP) aims to improve the jury system through advocacy and research. Its Web site includes research reports and, for New York jurors, information about jury service and assistance with jury-related concerns.

Civic Mind offers resources on civic participation, democracy, community service, and the legal system. It is the site of Wendy Bay Lewis, former lawyer and current writer, presenter, and consultant.

The Council for Court Excellence is an organization committed to improving the D.C. area justice system and has done a considerable amount of work on trial jury reform.

Family Friendly Jury Duty promotes family friendly jury laws-those that accommodate the needs of people who care for young, disabled, or elderly relatives. It also monitors current federal and state treatment of caretakers called for jury duty. The site was developed and maintained by former juror and activist, Kathye Schattner.

The International Association of Defense Counsel sponsors The National Jury Trial Innovations Project, which presents educational programming to legal professionals on jury decision making, connecting with jurors, and jury system improvements. Their Web site notes recent jury trial innovations and asks legal practitioners to complete a survey for a research project on jury trial procedures being conducted in association with the National Center for State Courts.

If you visited the New York Commission on the Jury interim report, another resource is the New York State Jury Trial Project report.  The NY Jury Innovations was a one-year experiment with jury trial innovations in NY trials.  On this site is  20 page pamphlet describing implementation of various innovative practices for New York state judges, a length bibliography on jury issues, and several articles published in the New York State Bar Association Law Journal on jury issues. 

The Ohio Jury Management Association is an organization of judges, jury commissioners, and court administrators and personnel for the purpose of promoting and enhancing jury service for the citizens of Ohio.

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, which provides free legal assistance to journalists, publishes the magazine News Media and the Law,  which considers issues related to legal media coverage, media law, and related topics.

Selected Databases and Article Collections

American Judicature Society’s National Jury Center bibliography collects and indexes citations to virtually all jury-related articles in legal periodicals since 2000.

Bar Cat is a searchable catalog of articles, books, and videos maintained by the American Bar Association. Suggested subject term: juries.

The Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) contains abstracts of report literature in education (broadly defined). Suggested search terms (descriptor): juries

Findlaw, a popular directory of legal materials on the Internet, offers a collection of practitioner-focused criminal law articles and civil law articles.

The Jury Research Services Division of the National Legal Research Group, a company that provides jury research services to attorneys, has a collection of articles about jury service, written for practitioners.

The National Criminal Justice Reference Service, a federally-funded entity interested in research and policy development related to the justice system and substance abuse, maintains two databases:

• The National Criminal Justice Reference Service Abstracts Database offers summaries of over 180,000 criminal justice publications. Suggested search terms include juries, jury decision making, jury research, jury selection, and right to trial by jury.
• The National Criminal Justice Reference Service Virtual Library is a database of over 7,000 full-text publications from a number of federal agencies concerned with justice and substance abuse issues.

The Trial Lawyers for Public Justice maintains a database of over 2,000 U.S. lawyers' associations, law schools, online legal resources and public interest groups. It may be searched by state or for the U.S. as a whole in a variety of categories.

Other

www.ejury.com
This for-profit company offers online mock jury research for a fee.

http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/juryduty.asp
"Information on an identify theft scam wherein the caller accuses the victim of failing to report for jury duty."

Click here for researchers' home pages and other academic resources.