Responding to a county court at law jury summons just got a little easier thanks to the Liberty County Clerk’s Office and new Odyssey software through Tyler Technology.
“When we got the Tyler Technology software, one component was Odyssey jury software for people who receive a jury summons. People are summoned to jury duty through a letter sent to them by mail. In this is a card that they must bring with them on the day of court. Once they arrive for court, we then have to get them signed in, which is very time consuming and requires a County Clerk employee to enter their information into the system,” said Liberty County Clerk Lee Haidusek Chambers. “Now everyone can fill out the information online by using the bar code on their summons and logging in through a website using their cell phones.”
The potential jurors who fill out the information online before court can simply sign in on the day they are ordered to appear using their unique juror ID number, and then take a seat in the courtroom instead of having to be checked in by the Clerk’s Office staff.
“They can also go online and put in a request to be deferred or excused, but they will still have to show up on the day of court. It’s a nice way to handle the jury summons because it streamlines everything,” Chambers said.
Another benefit of the software is that it will help purge the names of people who have died from the system.
“It’s a way to put that information into the system so we don’t keep sending out cards to people who shouldn’t be on the jury summons lists. We think it’s going to make a big difference,” she said.
Currently, the online jury summons system is only being used by the County Courts, not the District Courts, though Chambers said they are expected to begin using the same software soon.
“We will be adding it to the District Courts in the future. Before too long it will be for all jurors summoned to Liberty County courts,” Chambers said. “The District Clerk’s Office is already in the system. They have done everything we have. They just haven’t gone online yet.”
The next county court at law jury summons will be sent out over the next few days. The next court date is Nov. 14. If you receive a jury summons and want to use the new system, go online to http://jury.libertycountytx.com
If you still have questions about how to log in, call the Clerk’s Office at 936-336-4670.
