(Court Reports - Photo Illustration/MetroCreativeConnection)

PARKERSBURG –­ A new automated calling system is being implemented by the Wood County Circuit Clerk’s Office to notify those summoned for jury duty.

The new system is expected to be in operation starting today, to notify jurors about where and when to report for trials starting next Monday, Nov. 13, and beyond, Wood County Circuit Clerk Celeste Ridgway said.

County offices will be closed Friday in observance of Veterans Day.

“For a long time, the burden for calling out a jury has been placed on our courts’ bailiffs,” Ridgway said. “With the courts’ schedules, each judge might have anywhere from 15 to 20 hearings a day which keeps the bailiffs tied up in the courtrooms.

“When would they get the time to call out jurors for an upcoming trial?”

Around 180 qualified people will be contacted, starting today, for trials next week in both Wood County Circuit Court and Wood County Magistrate Court. Depending on when the trials are, these calls could come any day of the week, including over a weekend.

“What I want the public to know is that it should show a local Parkersburg number in West Virginia and it will have an automated message that will say it is a message from (the Circuit Clerk’s office) that they have been called to serve jury duty,” Ridgway said. “It will give you the date on when you will appear, it will give you the time to appear and it will also give you instructions on where the jury parking is.”

In the event the trial will not move forward or a plea has been reached and there will be no trial, a second message will go out canceling the call for jurors to report.

A corresponding text message will also be sent out informing people of jury duty or its cancellation.

People need to hear the calls and check their text messages.

“It is very important if someone gets a weird phone number that they are not sure of they need to check that,” Ridgway said.

She is concerned that people will think it is spam or some other call they would typically ignore.

The Wood County Circuit Clerk’s office retrieves names for potential jurors from the Wood County Registered Voters list and the Department of Motor Vehicles, through the West Virginia Supreme Court. They have six panels of jurors each year, each panel serves for three months. Juror Packets are mailed out to each person if they are selected to serve on one of the six panels and contacted on when to report.

Office personnel will make the message that will play before it is sent out.

“We can have it say whatever we need,”‘ Ridgway said of telling people which judge’s court to report to, when and so on.

There will also be directions about where people can park as well.

Information is available through the clerk’s office on the location of handicapped parking. People can call the office to get that information.

“We encourage everyone who wants to serve to serve and we want to give people that opportunity,” Ridgway said.

She checked with other counties to see what kind of automated calling systems were in place elsewhere and if any might work for Wood County. She came across an option that was affordable for the county. She was actually able to take it out of her existing budget and did not have to ask the county for any additional funds.

“It has been a long time in coming,” Ridgway said of the system.

She said part of the agreement she entered into with the system is that all of the phone numbers will remain private and will not be sold to an outside group for advertising and other things.

“The contract states those numbers for jury service only,” Ridgway said.

The judges are supportive of the new system as it takes that burden off the bailiffs.

“I am happy about it too as it is a huge improvement for us,” she said. “My biggest fear is people would think it was a scam and not answer it or check their messages.”

For people who don’t appear, the Wood County Sheriff’s Department is contacted and can be sent to bring people in.

“I want to avoid that,” Ridgway said.

Brett Dunlap can be reached at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com