If you’re picked for jury duty in Wood County, you will walk out of the courtroom with cash in hand as payment.
Potential jurors are now getting $40 in cash for showing up for jury duty.
If selected for a trial, they also will get $40 a day for every day in court. But, for now, those payments will be by check.
“We wanted to encourage people to be a part of it,” said Wood County Common Pleas Judge Matt Reger of the cash incentive to serve.
Payment has been $40 since 2000, and Wood County is among those who pay the most, he said.
The former method was to send a check, to everyone, Reger said.
Wood County Auditor Matt Oestreich said he sends two staff members to the courtroom in the morning, and when potential jurors check in, they are given two $20 bills.
Jurors who participate in a trial are still being paid by check, but that is in the process of changing, Oestreich said.
He said the hope is to reduce the county’s unclaimed funds account.
He said at least 50% of the account is from unclaimed juror payments; these are checks mailed to jurors that have not been cashed.
Oestreich said he wants to reduce the time it takes to write the checks, mail them and process the payments or lack thereof. He also considers the cost of postage.
“It works pretty good,” Oestreich said about the cash payments. “We have a good collaboration between court administration and our office.”
He said the idea of all-cash payments was recently raised.
“That is step two of the process,” Oestreich said.
If implemented, a juror would receive payment as they left a courtroom after giving the verdict and being excused.
Oestreich said his office carries unclaimed checks on the books for five years. After that, if they remained unclaimed, the money goes into the general fund.
A look at the unclaimed fund list of the auditor’s website showed around 80 unclaimed payments to jurors since 2019.
All those jurors received payment but never took advantage of it, Oestreich said.
County checks are canceled after 90 days, but the debt is forever out there, he said.
Anyone holding an uncashed check can take it to the county treasurer’s office or fill out the paperwork found on the Wood County Auditor’s website under the “Unclaimed Funds” link.
“Anytime we can reacquaint people with their unclaimed funds is a great thing,” Oestreich said.
The unclaimed fund balance at the end of 2021 was $128,528.
Oestreich said the cash payments started in Reger’s courtroom and Wood County Common Pleas Judge Joel Kuhlman just added the procedure.
Oestreich said Wood County Common Pleas Judge Molly Mack is showing interest.
He said he hopes to cut down the number of unclaimed funds and save processing time now done by his staff.
He said something similar is done in Montgomery County, where jurors get a code and use it at an ATM to withdraw the funds.
The cost of the ATM was $80,000.
“I came up with the Wood County method where two staff can go up there and distribute the cash,” Oestreich said.
He said jurors are providing a good service.
“$40 hopefully gets your gas covered and buys you lunch that day,” he said.
