New look and process for jury duty unveiled

BONNERS FERRY — Boundary County, as well as other Idaho counties, has updated its jury management software to a modern, secure, web-based program.  

County residents that are randomly selected as prospective jurors, will receive updated, combination jury duty summons and questionnaires beginning in mid-August. 

Prior to this change, those on jury duty would be contacted by mail and had to call in to the jury commissioner.  

Now that Idaho has chosen Tyler Technologies EJM to be the standard jury management program for the state, Boundary County will save staff time and postage, officials said. 

Ben Reinhardt, Boundary County jury commissioner, said that prior to the new system he would have to manually code questionnaire responses into the system and would personally fold and mail all paperwork.  

With the changeover to Tyler Technologies, a center in Boise will be mailing out all documents to prospective jurors.  

The new system has updated the jury summons and questionnaire standardizing the format for all counties. Information specific to Boundary County is printed on the forms, including the county seal, Reinhardt said. 

This change should make the process easier for prospective jurors. 

Prospective jurors can complete and return the questionnaire three ways: log into State of Idaho eResponse website https://jury.idaho.gov/, IVR (interactive voice recognition) phone line 844-599-1211, or by hand, and mail or otherwise deliver to Reinhardt at the Boundary County Courthouse.  

Tyler EJM sends automatic reminders of assigned jury duty dates, via email, or text (if opted in), to everyone assigned to a given trial date. The program emails and/or texts any changes of report time/date, or trial cancellation. Jurors may also check their status via the IVR phone line, or at the eResponse website. 

The first jury forms are going out now. The standard return deadline of 10 days from receipt of the forms applies. 

For more information, reach out to Ben Reinhardt at 208-267-0924 or email jury@boundarycountyid.org for jury business only.