Belvedere Citizen / Eastside Journal, Number 42, 15 October 1980 — Ballot Measure Prop. 6 would cut jury size [ARTICLE]

Ballot Measure Prop. 6 would cut jury size

(THIRD IN SERIES) Proposition 6, on the Nov. 4 ballot, would reduce the number of jurors required in civil cases from 12 persons to 8, or “a lesser number agreed on by the parties in open court.”

Historically, the state courts have adopted the common law rule that a jury must consist of 12 persons. The California Constitution provides that in civil and misdemeanor

cases the jury may consist of 12 or a smaller number of persons as agreed on in open court by the parties. Prop. 6 would allow the reduction to 8 without consent in eases where the amount of the claim is $15,000 or less, which can be handled in municipal or justice courts. PROPONENTS Proponents say experimenting with smaller juries could speed up the trial procedure, allowing more cases to be tried, and would preserve the requirement of a the requirement of a threequarters agreement by jurors to decide a case. According to the proponents, Judge David Eagleson and State Senators Marz Garcia and Robert Beverly, 38 states and most US district courts already use juries consisting of less than 12 members, even in criminal cases, which would not be allowed in California. Opponents say smaller juries threaten the fairness of decisions, limits the quality of justice provided, and does not allow for a sufficient cross section of the community to be represented in smaller cases.