A Message from Clerk Burke:
Dear Pinellas County Citizens
In March, the Florida Supreme Court suspended jury trials throughout the state due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the past several months, new CDC-recommended safety guidelines were implemented to protect you while at the courthouse.
With your health and well-being in mind, temperature checks are now administered upon entry, and face coverings are required while inside the building. Common areas are continuously cleaned, hand sanitizer stations are located throughout the building, and social distancing is enforced.
To ensure our citizens are able to continue seeking justice, Chief Justice Charles Canady recently issued an amendment to Administrative Order 20-23. The order outlines how and when jury trials may safely proceed in each county. With our new measures in place, the Florida Supreme Court has determined that jury trials may resume in Pinellas County. In response, Sixth Circuit Chief Judge Anthony Rondolino has directed the Pinellas Clerk of Courts to begin reissuing juror summons for trials scheduled to begin on October 26, 2020.
If you are selected to serve as juror, please be assured that your health and well-being remain our first priority. Jurors will be processed efficiently with all social distancing requirements being followed throughout their service. Additional measures are in place during your time of jury service:
- Juror check-ins are contactless
- Plexiglass has been installed at all counter stations
- Touch points have been reduced. Examples: magazines, have been removed, computer room closed and juror coffee will not be supplied
To reduce interactions and handling of paper between jurors and Deputy Clerks, we have implemented completion of the Juror Questionnaire and Affidavit of Compensation on-line. We are requesting you provide us with your phone number and email address when completing your questionnaire so that we may provide you with updates.
While these measures are very comprehensive, we also understand some citizens may be unable to serve because they have been directly impacted by COVID-19. You may be excused from jury duty if you do not meet the court's screening requirements upon entry, are a person at higher risk for severe illness due to COVID-19 infection, must care for a child or relative whose regular care provider is closed or unavailable for reasons related to COVID-19, or are receiving leave pursuant to the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. Start your excusal online.
In addition, potential jurors may postpone service for up to six months if they have recently returned to work after being unemployed due to COVID-19 or have suffered a financial or personal loss due to COVID-19 that makes it a hardship to perform jury service. Start your postponement online.
Yet even as we focus on the safety and security of our jurors, we are equally focused on the duty of the Justice System to be able to provide the constitutional right to a jury trial for our citizens. A recent report from the Trial Court Budget Commission estimates 1,180 criminal and civil jury trials have been delayed statewide since March. Pinellas County alone held close to 263 jury trials last year. Using this historical reference, our current backlog would be about 82 jury trials so far and increasing every week. We are ready to get started, safely and securely.
And let me be the first to say a very sincere thank you to those folks in our community who receive a summons and are able and willing to serve as a juror. Serving your country as a juror is a duty and a service for which you can be very proud. It is an essential part of our freedoms in this great country, the United States of America.
Thank you and stay healthy.
Ken Burke
Pinellas County Clerk of Courts