Costs of Jury Duty

Re your July 18 story about employers not paying employees on jury duty: While it is easy to point a finger at employers, the fact is, only business owners are being asked to bear the burden. When an employee is on jury duty with pay, the employer either suffers from loss of business or double costs by hiring a temporary employee to fill in for the one on jury duty.

Would judges be willing to work 12-hour days so cases could take fewer days, allowing jurors to return to work earlier? Since so much of the jury pool is government workers, perhaps there should be some tax credit to [private] employers who pay. The bottom line is that this is a burden that should be shared by all, not just employers.

Steven Afriat

Los Angeles