A new state law will go into effect in 2015, raising jury duty pay in Illinois. The pay for jurors will jump from $10 per day to $25 the first day and $50 every day after. Many counties are expecting budget woes thanks to the increase, but Bond County Circuit Clerk Rex Catron says Bond County won’t be impacted significantly.
“The budget for paying jurors is in the judge’s budget area and I think it’s currently about $3,000 a year,” Catron told WGEL. “In my four years of being Circuit Clerk, we’ve had three jury trials. Those three trials have lasted about three days. The one we just completed recently, we brought in about 80 jurors for the first day, picked 14 people to serve on the jury, and they were there two additional days.
“This doesn’t really have a large impact on Bond County. It would on Madison County and some of the bigger counties that regularly have jury trials, but for Bond County it’s not too bad.
“The other thing they did take away with that bill, too, is we no longer pay mileage. Currently, they [jurors] get $10 a day, plus roundtrip mileage for every day they come. So the mileage goes away with the increase in the pay.”
The new law goes into effect in June.
