State shifts pay for some jurors to prepaid debit cards

North Carolinians serving on juries in a third of the state’s counties are receiving their pay on prepaid debit cards, replacing paper checks, the state’s Administrative Office of the Courts said in a news release.

The 33 counties involved stretch from the coast across the Piedmont to the mountains. They are Alamance, Brunswick, Burke, Cabarrus, Caldwell, Carteret, Catawba, Cumberland, Dare, Davie, Duplin, Franklin, Gaston, Graham, Guilford, Iredell, Jackson, Lee, Lenoir, New Hanover, Onslow, Orange, Pender, Randolph, Rowan, Sampson, Stanly, Surry, Transylvania, Union, Wake, Wilkes and Yadkin counties.

By January 2025, the number of counties will rise to at least 55 as part of an effort to “improve efficiency and adopt paperless processes,” the release says.

“By offering this new payment method, jurors won’t have to wait on mailed paper checks and will have immediate access to those funds,” Ryan Boyce, the office’s director, said in the release.

Jim Mixson, Iredell County Clerk of Superior Court and president of the North Carolina Conference of Clerks of Superior Court, touted the benefits of the change.

“We are excited for this opportunity,” he said in the release. “Moving from paper checks to debit cards provides for a more efficient and secure method of paying jurors for their service. It also provides jurors access to their payment almost immediately upon completing their service.”

More information about jury service is available at nccourts.gov/jury-service.