Jury Duty Pay Going from $6 to $20 Soon in Tyler, Texas

It was a few weeks ago I went to my mailbox after work and I saw a letter from Smith County, I was curious what the letter was all about. I knew all the bills were paid so I ripped open the letter to find out that for the first time in my life I was called for jury duty. Seeing as how Savannah and I watch crime shows whenever we have time to sit on the couch together, I was excited to see what the process was like. Earlier this week I performed my duty and spent a large portion of my day at the courthouse in downtown Tyler, Texas. 

The experience taught me a lot, one of the first things I learned was that the pay for jury duty will soon be going up. Beginning September 1st instead of the normal $6 per day you will get $20 per day, and $60 for each additional day that you need to serve as a juror. I was informed of that not long after arriving for jury duty. Another thing to remember, don’t show up late for jury duty, you’re just holding everything up. 

Get our free mobile app

Smith County Court Employees Work Hard 

After spending one day going through the jury duty process, I have more respect for all the employees that work at the courthouse. I was there until almost 6:30pm and that means the judge, lawyers, bailiffs, and others were all still working as well. They are putting in long hours to make sure our justice system is carried out correctly, it’s impressive the amount of work that going into everything. 

I Was Not Selected to Serve on the Jury 

After spending many hours going through the process I was relieved of my duty and did not get selected to serve on the actual jury. But the judge did mention that because of COVID there are thousands of cases they are trying to get done quickly so if you’re living in Smith County don’t be surprised if you’re called for jury duty soon.