Ellsworth

It could be that every Jury summons in my City, County, State is invalid -- and have been for a long time.
Here is the explanation:

I saw a Jury Summons a while back.
I looked at it carefully.

I read it top to bottom, side to side, front to back, and upside down. <- Humor
I read it carefully.

Reading it carefully was difficult, very, very difficult. Of course I had to research why.

I had to wear glasses and use a magnifying glass to read the legal summons.
So I printed out examples of font size, in a comparable looking font.
From font size 1 to font size 12, I printed the same words that were on the summons (iirc same words, but it may have been Lorem Ipsum text).

IIRC the summons seemed to be font size 6 or 9, it sure looked smaller than font size 10 to me.
It was illegible to my naked eye, which is reliant upon 1.25 readers.
It was illegible to my eye, when behind my readers.
I had to double up, readers and magnifying glass, for the legal summons to be legible.

So I had to dig deeper. Here are some random links,
https://www.section508.gov/develop/fonts-typography/
https://wordscr.com/what-is-the-mini...ze-in-ms-word/
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice...business-fonts
https://fontsaga.com/standard-font-size-for-documents/
There's a lot more data available on font size, ADA, established office etiquette, policy/protocol from various businesses, standard practices within the graphic design and marketing fields.

Here's my premise:
A jury summons that is illegible to perhaps a third of the population (33.3%) is a travesty of justice.
It potentially limits the jury pool, by age and visual ability.
It potentially removes the elderly -- because they are likely to confuse it with junk mail.

Font size 11 or 12, or at a minimum 10.
Any of those sizes seem more realistic -- and potentially more likely to be legally valid.

I have since reflected upon the potential impact on the Jury's experience, if it was indeed shaped by font size.
What happens if older folks, those with more lived experience, are artificially removed from even entering the pool?
What happens if those who are more likely to stick to their opinions, like the elderly are wont to do, are removed from the pool?
What is the effect on speed, if the only participants are those who find it easy to read -- evidence?
And what is the potential impact on justice for both plaintiffs and defendants / for accused criminals and alleged victims?

• This is the last potential issue I'll mention, for the implications could be huge: are there implications regarding grounds for appeals? Are legal notifications with font size less than 10 proper service? Is the burden different for the State versus private companies (which often use tiny font)? If a convicted person faced a Jury that was potentially formed / shaped / limited due to improper Jury Summons, would there be grounds for an appeal of the conviction?

https://wordscr.com/what-size-font-for-legal-documents/
https://growlawfirm.com/blog/font-for-legal-documents

Font size for legal documents might be defined by case law / precedent, if not by Statute. I miss the access to LexisNexis that I had in college, as part of tuition benefits, but less than I miss my free access to JSTOR. The later is more personally enriching.

Now this might have been a single case where it happened, and only one summons was affected (unlikely).
It could be just a single court (possible).
It could be the entire county (more likely).
Or it could be state wide (less likely).
I am not familiar enough with the process to take a solid guess at the size of the region effected, I can only imagine the potential effects on the Justice System.

What are the legal implication of all the above?
Heck if I know, but now you know about the issue.
It could all be a non-issue, but it sure made me think.
I do not know when the potential problem started, and I don't know if it's already been fixed. I have proof of only a single instance.

At the same time I learned about aged based exemptions from jury duty. There are potential implications for the topic above, and it is worth including in the discussion:

"Can Your Age Get You Excused From Jury Duty? Depending on where you live, you might be able to avoid serving"
https://www.aarp.org/politics-societ...exemption.html

"The Elderly and Jury Duty: Exemptions and Other Rules"
https://elderwise.com/health-lifesty...d-other-rules/

"Can Senior Citizens be Excused from Jury Duty?"
https://www.retirefearless.com/post/...from-jury-duty