Why Won't They Come? Findings from a Study of Nonresponse and Failure to Appear Rates in Harris County, Texas

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Abstract

In 2023, the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) and RTI International (RTI), partnered with the Harris County District Clerk’s Office (TX), which oversees jury operations for the Harris County District Court, to investigate the incidence of failure to respond to a jury summons or failure to appear (FTA) for a reporting date in the greater Houston area. For this study, The Harris County District Clerk randomly selected 5,000 records from jurors who failed to respond or failed to appear for jury service in the past year to complete a brief survey exploring beliefs, attitudes, and experience with jury service. Survey respondents were invited to participate in a brief qualitative interview to further share their attitudes. This session will present the study data and methods, report findings from the survey and structured interviews, and conclusions and recommendations for jury operations in the Harris County District Court.

Authors

• Paula Hannaford-Agor, National Center for State Courts

• Beth Hustedt, RTI International

• Emily Burtch, RTI International