Modernizing Jury Service in Harris County: e-Juror and Higher Pay (Part 2)
Learning from the experiences of COVID-19, District Clerk Marilyn Burgess decides to push forward jury service innovation for a more modern juror experience in Harris County. This is part two.
Chapter III: Modernizing the Experience: Online Tools and the e‑Juror System
Even before the pandemic, Harris County’s jury system depended heavily on paper summons and phone calls, making it hard to communicate quickly with jurors or adjust when court dockets changed. For many residents, that meant uncertainty. They might not know where to park, what to wear, or whether their panel would actually be needed on the day they took off work. As the county emerged from the first waves of COVID‑19, Clerk Burgess saw an opportunity to do more than simply restart the old process. She wanted to rebuild it around better communication and a respect for people’s time.
The result was e‑Juror, an electronic summoning system conceived and developed in‑house by the District Clerk’s IT team. Under the new system, prospective jurors who receive a summons are instructed to pre‑register online or call the jury staff to pre‑register by phone. During that process, they can claim qualifying exemptions or disqualifications, provide an email address and cell phone number, and receive an assigned date to appear. If that date does not work, they can reschedule immediately and get a second date instead of waiting on hold or mailing in a request. In the week leading up to service, they receive reminder emails, and the day before they appear, they also receive a text message.
Those changes may seem simple, but they have had an incredible impact. From May through October 2021, 93% of the residents who pre‑registered through e‑Juror and were assigned a date did show up for jury service. For the District Clerk’s Jury Team, the system also made it possible to predict how many jurors would appear at each call and to cancel or reschedule when they could see that more people were coming than needed on a given day. That reduced wasted trips for residents and made operations more efficient at a time when courtrooms were still adapting to health protocols.
In December 2021, these efforts earned national recognition. The National Center for State Courts awarded Marilyn Burgess the G. Thomas Munsterman Award for Jury Innovation, citing e‑Juror, her advocacy for higher jury pay, and amenities like free parking and coffee as concrete steps to eliminate barriers to service.
“The innovations that Ms. Burgess has championed in Harris County demonstrate concrete steps that courts can take to eliminate barriers to jury service,” said NCSC President Mary C. McQueen.
She also noted that the office’s use of technology “shows respect for the wellbeing of jurors.” Clerk Burgess, accepting the award at the renovated Jury Assembly Building, described modernization as a priority “since I ran for office” and credited the Jury, IT, and Communications teams for the gains in participation.
Those amenities have since become part of the everyday experience for jurors. With support from Commissioners Court, the District Clerk’s Office provides free parking and free coffee to residents who answer their summons, and has offered meal vouchers during key periods to make long days at the courthouse a little easier. Later jury‑wheel ceremonies in 2022 and 2024 highlighted these changes, noting that Harris County now maintains a jury database of more than 2.7 million potential jurors while also making service more convenient through online pre‑registration and improved support on site. For someone arriving at the Jury Assembly Building today, the process is more digital, more predictable, and more focused on removing small but meaningful barriers that once discouraged people from serving.
Chapter IV: Making Service Fairer, Historic Jury Pay Increases
Modern tools and better communication can make jury service more convenient, but they cannot solve a deeper problem on their own. For many Harris County residents, a day at the courthouse still means a day without pay. For many years, jurors in Harris County received $6 for the first day of service and $40 for subsequent days. That low rate posed a particular burden for hourly workers, caregivers, and people without savings, and it contributed to the same disparities that showed up in the jury participation data.
Since taking office in 2019, Marilyn Burgess has pushed to change that. Early in her tenure, she proposed increasing juror compensation from $6 to $50 for the first day and from $40 to $80 for subsequent days, a plan that was tabled while the county focused on overcoming the COVID‑19 pandemic. At the same time, she gathered data to show why higher pay mattered, documenting that from January 1, 2021 through December 31, 2022, African Americans and Hispanics were significantly underrepresented among those who appeared for jury service compared to their share of the county’s population. Her argument was straightforward: if Harris County wanted juries that reflected its racial and socioeconomic diversity, it had to pay people more fairly for their time.
In 2023, that long‑running advocacy led to a historic increase in juror compensation. On September 1, a statewide raise approved by the Texas Legislature went into effect, taking the first‑day payment from $6 to $20 and increasing pay for subsequent days from $40 to $58.
“I am confident this jury pay increase is a necessary first step towards improving participation and having juries that reflect the diverse racial and socioeconomic demographics of Harris County,” Clerk Burgess said.
She also added that she would continue working with Commissioners Court to supplement the local portion of jury pay. On the same day, the county also raised the age threshold to claim an exemption from jury service, from 70 to 75 years old. This came with much criticism, but it aligns the system with an older, more active population. For those who serve with difficulty, the DCO Jury staff and the Communications department continued their work on educating residents of their options.
Less than a month later, Harris County went further. On September 19, 2023, Commissioners Court voted to raise the first‑day rate again, from $20 to $30, effective October 1. That local increase built on the state’s action and represented an additional investment of approximately $1.2 million, according to Precinct 4 Commissioner Lesley Briones. “Showing up for jury duty can pose an insurmountable financial hardship for individuals who cannot afford to miss work or pay for childcare,” Briones said, explaining that higher pay would help ensure juries “more fully reflect the diversity of our community.” Clerk Burgess called the increase “a significant stride towards fostering and promoting diversity within the juries of Harris County.”
Alongside higher pay, the District Clerk’s Office also modernized how jurors are paid. Beginning in September 2023, the office, in partnership with County Treasurer Carla Wyatt, rolled out CourtFunds Pay Cards, a debit‑card‑based system that replaces paper checks. Jurors’ cards are scanned at check‑in and activated about two business days after service, and they can be used anywhere MasterCard is accepted. “Some jurors may not have a bank account and being paid with a check at the end of their service may not be the most convenient option for them,” Clerk Burgess said. “These pay cards make jury service payments more efficient and convenient.” District Clerk Marilyn Burgess’ continued advocacy was recognized again, as she received an award as the Public Official of the Year (2023), bestowed by the University of Houston’s Master of Public Administration (MPA) Program.
Taken together with e‑Juror and outreach campaigns like “Stand for Justice – Participate in Jury Service,” these changes send a consistent message: Harris County expects a lot from its jurors, and it is working to meet them halfway. By raising pay, speeding up payments, and addressing decades‑old inequities in who can afford to serve, District Clerk Marilyn Burgess and her team have tied the idea of a “fair trial” not only to what happens in the courtroom, but also to how the community is asked (and enabled)—to participate in justice.
READ PART 3
Modernizing Jury Service in Harris County: Outreach in the Community (Part 3)
Chapter V: First Community Outreach Initiative: “Stand for Justice”