COURTS OF APPEALS, DISTRICT COURTS, AND OTHER JUDICIAL SERVICES

Fees of Jurors and Commissioners

SUMMARY STATEMENT OF ACCOUNT REQUIREMENTS

Fiscal Year 2024 Assumed Appropriation $ 50,602,000

Fiscal Year 2025 Requested Appropriation $ 48,096,000

Requested Increase from Fiscal Year 2024 Assumed Appropriation (2,506,000)

APPROPRIATION LANGUAGE

COURTS OF APPEALS, DISTRICT COURTS, AND OTHER JUDICIAL SERVICES

FEES OF JURORS AND COMMISSIONERS

 For fees and expenses of jurors as authorized by 28 U.S.C. 1871 and 1876; compensation of jury

commissioners as authorized by 28 U.S.C. 1863; and compensation of commissioners appointed in 

condemnation cases pursuant to rule 71.1(h) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (28 U.S.C. Appendix

Rule 71.1(h)), [$50,602,000]$48,096,000, to remain available until expended: Provided , That the 

compensation of land commissioners shall not exceed the daily equivalent of the highest rate payable

under 5 U.S.C. 5332.

(H.R. 4664/S. 2309 - Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2024, updated to

reflect the judiciary's fiscal year 2024 assumed appropriation)

6.1
Fiscal Year 2025 Resource Requirements:

FTEs Amount

Fiscal Year 2024 Assumed Obligations........................................................................ - $60,902

Carryforward balances ................................................................................ - (10,300)

Fiscal Year 2024 Assumed Appropriation..................................................................... - $50,602

Page

No. A. Adjustments to Base:

6.10 1. Inflationary adjustments

a. Grand Jurors............................................................................................. - 150

b. Petit Jurors................................................................................................. - 334

6.10 2. Projected change in available jurors

a. Grand Jurors............................................................................................. - (2,986)

b. Petit Jurors................................................................................................. - (9,304)

6.10 3. Increase in appropriation to fund current services........................................................ - 9,300

 Subtotal, Adjustments to Base to Maintain Current Services.......................................... - (2,506)

 Total Current Services Appropriation Required...................................................... - 48,096

 Total Fiscal Year 2025 Appropriation Required....................................................... - 48,096

- (2,506)

Financing the Fiscal Year 2025 Request:

 - 48,096

6.11 4. Anticipated carryforward from FY 2024 and prior years into FY 2025........................... - 1,000

Estimated Obligations, Fiscal Year 2025..................................................................... - 49,096

SUMMARY OF REQUEST

FEES OF JURORS AND COMMISSIONERS

FISCAL YEAR 2025

(Dollar amounts in thousands)

 Total Appropriation Change, Fiscal Year 2024 to Fiscal Year 2025..............................

Total Appropriation Required.................................................................................

6.2
Fiscal Year 2023 

Actual 

Fiscal Year 2024

Assumed

Fiscal Year 2025 

Request

Comparison by activities:

Land commissioners - 100 100 

Grand Jurors 14,357 15,807 14,540 

Petit Jurors 36,514 44,995 34,456 

Total Direct Obligations 50,871 60,902 49,096 

Unobligated Balance, start of year (1,326) (10,300) (1,000) 

Transfer to the Salaries and Expenses Account - - - 

Anticipated Financial Plan Savings (1,445) - - 

Prior Year Recoveries (161) (1,000) - 

Unobligated Balance, end of year 10,300 1,000 - 

Appropriation 58,239 50,602 48,096 

Fiscal Year 2023 

Actual 

Fiscal Year 2024 

Assumed

Fiscal Year 2025 

Request

11 Personnel compensation 24,080 28,829 23,241

21 Travel 20,771 24,867 20,046

23 Rent, communications and utilities 3,017 3,611 2,911

25 Other services 1,680 2,011 1,621

26 Supplies and materials 1,323 1,584 1,277

Total Obligations 50,871 60,902 49,096

Description

COURTS OF APPEALS, DISTRICT COURTS AND OTHER JUDICIAL SERVICES

FEES OF JURORS AND COMMISSIONERS

Obligations by Activity ($000)

Activity

Obligations by Budget Object Class ($000)

6.3
FY 2023 FY 2024 FY 2025

Actual Assumed Request

Obligations incurred 50,871 60,902 49,096

Obligated balance, start of year 2,914 2,798 3,350

Adjustment to prior year activity (814) (975) (786) 

Obligated balance, end of year (2,798) (3,350) (2,700)

Total Outlays 50,173 59,376 48,959

Less Offsets (793) (949) (765)

Net Outlays 49,380 58,426 48,194

COURTS OF APPEALS, DISTRICT COURTS AND OTHER JUDICIAL SERVICES

FEES OF JURORS AND COMMISSIONERS

Relation of Obligations to Outlays ($000)

6.4
GENERAL STATEMENT AND INFORMATION

This appropriation provides for the statutory fees and allowances of grand and petit jurors, and for the compensation of jury and land 

commissioners. In addition to reimbursement for daily travel to and from court, expenses allowed include meals and lodging 

furnished to sequestered jurors, and transportation to view evidence or crime scenes offsite. Budgetary requirements depend largely 

upon the volume and the length of jury trials demanded by parties to both civil and criminal actions and the number of grand juries 

convened by the courts at the request of United States Attorneys. All these factors are outside the control of the judiciary. 

The fiscal year (FY) 2025 request of $48,096,000 for the Fees of Jurors and Commissioners account will support all projected 

requirements for petit and grand jurors and land commissioners. 

Petit Jurors

A petit jury may be called to hear a trial in a criminal or civil action. A criminal trial normally has a 12-person jury, and a civil trial 

typically has a 7- to 9-person jury. Criminal juries decide whether the defendant is guilty of the crime as charged. In a civil trial, the 

jury’s responsibility is to decide whether the defendant injured or otherwise failed to fulfill a legal obligation to the plaintiff and to 

determine the appropriate compensation. Petit jurors are entitled to a daily attendance fee of $50 for each day of their jury service. 

The number of jurors called on any given day to serve in a petit jury pool is related to the number and type of cases in which a jury 

trial is requested. Moreover, under rules of criminal procedure, criminal trials are allowed additional peremptory challenges (i.e., 

exclusions of jurors from the pool without a stated reason) compared to civil trials because of the jury size. This means that the court 

must take these challenges into account when determining the number of potential jurors in a criminal jury pool. However, a 

correspondingly larger number of prospective jurors in the criminal pool will not be selected to serve on the trial due in part to the 

additional peremptory challenges. Thus, when compared to civil jury selections, the total number of prospective jurors completing 

jury service during jury selection is greater in criminal trials. 

Petit juror activity continues to be in flux following the pandemic. After an increase in FY 2022, the number petit jurors decreased in 

FY 2023 and is projected to continue declining in both FY 2024 and FY 2025. The total number of available petit jurors1

 in FY 2023 

decreased by 5.1 percent from 339,615 to 322,430. Going forward, available petit jurors are projected to decrease further to 311,600 

in FY 2024 and then decrease again to 308,900 in FY 2025. This trend is driven largely by an estimated decrease in jury trial days in 

1 An available petit juror is one that is present for selection or serving following selection.

6.5
FY 2024 and FY 2025. Table 6.1 on page 6.7 provides a historical pattern of the number of juror days, number of jurors called, and 

the related costs of those jurors’ expenses. 

Grand Jurors

A grand jury is a jury of inquiry whose duty is to receive complaints and accusations in criminal cases, hear the evidence presented on 

the part of the Government, and find bills of indictment in cases where the jurors are satisfied that the evidence presented is sufficient 

to warrant filing an indictment and bringing the case to trial. The number of grand juries convened by district courts varies depending 

on such factors as the number of criminal cases, the type of criminal activity, and the number of places in which court is held. Grand 

juror activity is measured by the number of sessions convened, jurors in session, and total jurors in attendance. Grand jurors are 

entitled to a daily attendance fee of $50 for each day of their jury service. 

In FY 2023, the total number of available grand jurors2 increased by 7.3 percent from 134,637 to 144,477. Although this continues to 

be lower than the historic average, it reflects a slight rebound as more courts resumed normal jury operations following the pandemic. 

Going forward, available grand jurors are projected to decrease in FY 2024 to 140,300 and then continue to decrease in FY 2025 to 

137,500. Table 6.2 on page 6.8 provides further detail on grand jury activity. 

FISCAL YEAR 2024 APPROPRIATIONS

In the absence of enacted full year FY 2024 appropriations, the judiciary made assumptions to construct a FY 2025 budget request. 

The judiciary built the FY 2025 budget request for the Fees of Jurors and Commissioners appropriation assuming the FY 2024 

conference appeal level of $50,602,000, which is the level necessary to meet all FY 2024 projected juror requirements. For bill 

language, the judiciary used the language from H.R. 4664 and S. 2309 - Financial Services and General Government appropriations 

bills, 2024, as the closest approximation of the eventual enacted FY 2024 appropriations language, updated with the assumed level as 

described above. 

2 An available grand juror is one that is either selected to serve or serving during a convened grand jury session.

6.6
Table 6.1 Petit Juror Activity

Petit Jury Trial Days Available Jurors Cost

Fiscal Year Criminal Civil Total

Percent

Change Jurors

Percent

Change

Fees &

Expenses

Percent

Change

Actual 2015 9,609 9,947 19,556 -5.6% 376,723 -9.7% $34,002,000 -10.0%

2016 9,327 9,179 18,506 -5.4% 368,639 -2.1% $33,898,000 -0.3%

2017 8,892 8,628 17,520 -5.3% 348,259 -5.5% $32,209,000 -5.0%

2018 9,401 7,911 17,312 -1.2% 357,004 2.5% $35,287,000 9.6%

2019

2020

9,373

4,889

7,150

3,574

16,523

8,463

-4.6%

-48.8%

349,852

182,691

-2.0%

-47.8%

$36,516,000

$21,027,000

3.5%

-42.4%

2021 5,402 3,422 8,824 4.3% 185,565 1.6% $21,507,000 2.3%

2022 9,569 7,019 16,588 88.0% 339,615 83.0% $38,340,000 78.3%

2023 9,075 6,526 15,601 -6.0% 322,430 -5.1% $36,514,000 -4.8%

Estimated 2424 8,900 6,500 15,400 -1.3% 311,600 -3.4% $44,995,000 23.2%

2025 8,600 6,300 14,900 -3.2% 308,900 -0.9% $34,456,000 -23.4%

6.7

Land Commissioners

Land commissioners are responsible for determining the issue of just compensation arising from the deprivation of private property for 

public use. Under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, a district court may use its discretion to order that compensation for 

condemned property be determined by a commission of three persons appointed by the court. The determination of compensation is 

based on evidence presented during the exercise of trial procedures and evidentiary rulings. This delegation of the judicial function 

requires close judicial supervision and requires that actions taken by the commission be fully documented to permit full review by the 

district or appellate courts. This system ensures due process of law to the litigants. 

Land commissioners are compensated based on the daily equivalent of the highest rate payable under 5 U.S.C. § 5332. They are also 

eligible for locality pay amounts that apply to their locality pay areas which are payable in addition to their basic pay. The annual 

adjusted pay rate (i.e., basic pay plus locality pay) for land commissioners is limited to the rate of pay for level III of the Executive 

Schedule, currently $204,000. 

6.9
JUSTIFICATION OF CHANGES

The FY 2025 appropriation request for Fees of Jurors and 

Commissioners totals $48,096,000, which represents a decrease 

of $2,506,000, or 5.0 percent, below the FY 2024 assumed

appropriation of $50,602,000. The amount requested is for 

adjustments to base to maintain current services. 

A. ADJUSTMENTS TO BASE TO MAINTAIN

CURRENT SERVICES

1. Inflationary adjustments

a. Grand Jurors

Requested Increase: $150,000 

An increase of $150,000 is requested for inflationary 

adjustments associated with grand juror costs, including travel 

allowances (mileage, parking, tolls), meals and lodging for 

sequestered jurors, and other miscellaneous juror expenses.

b. Petit Jurors

Requested Increase: $334,000 

An increase of $334,000 is requested for inflationary increases 

associated with petit juror costs, including travel allowances

(mileage, parking, tolls), meals and lodging for sequestered 

jurors, and other miscellaneous juror expenses. 

2. Projected change in available jurors

a. Grand Jurors

Requested Decrease: ($2,986,000) 

A decrease of $2,986,000 is to align FY 2025 appropriations 

requirements with updated available grand jurors workload 

projections. 

b. Petit Jurors

Requested Decrease: ($9,304,000) 

A decrease of $9,304,000 is to align FY 2025 appropriations 

requirements with updated available petit jurors workload 

projections. 

3. Increase in appropriation needed to fund current services

Requested Increase: $9,300,000 

In FY 2024, $10.3 million in balances from FY 2023 and prior 

years is available to finance FY 2024 requirements. Because the 

judiciary anticipates having $9.3 million less in carryforward

funding in FY 2025 after assuming $1.0 million will be 

recovered from prior years, it requests $9.3 million more to

maintain current services. 

6.10
FINANCING THE FISCAL YEAR 2025 REQUEST

4. Anticipated carryforward from FY 2024 and prior years into

FY 2025

Estimated funds available: $1,000,000 

The judiciary projects $1,000,000 will be available through 

anticipated savings to carry forward from FY 2024 and prior 

years to offset the FY 2025 appropriations request for the Fees 

of Jurors account. The judiciary will advise the appropriations 

subcommittee staff of any changes to this estimate.

6.11