Step 1: Each year the names of prospective jurors are selected randomly by computer from a merged list of voter registration records and the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles records.
Step 2: The Circuit Court mails a Jury Questionnaire to individuals who were randomly selected. The questionnaire must be completed and returned to the Court within ten days.
Step 3: Jury Commissioners (appointed by the Court) review the questionnaire responses and select approximately 10,000 qualified citizens based on the criteria set forth in the Virginia Code. The citizens selected by the Jury Commissioners constitute the Master Jury Pool for the next calendar year.
Step 4: Approximately 800 jurors per month are randomly selected from the Master Jury Pool and are summoned to serve on Assigned Dates of Service (usually one day a week) during their month of service.
Step 5: The Court issues a Summons for Jury Duty which officially places you "on-call" for jury service. Approximately 200 jurors are "on-call" each day. Rather than require all 200 jurors to report, the Court "calls-in" only the number of jurors needed, based on the number of jury trials scheduled. Not all jurors reporting for service are selected for trial cases.