NEW YORK—JPMorgan Chase has added another inconvenience to jury duty—bank fees.
Bloomberg reported that in a handful of jurisdictions JPMorgan Chase has taken over administration of the juror compensation system, issuing debit cards instead of traditional paper checks.
“In addition to the juror pay, the cards also come loaded with fees—for balance inquiries, for inactivity, for using non-Chase ATMs, for charges with insufficient funds and for cash or check issuance. The funds become impossible to withdraw from an ATM once the balance falls below $20, and in at least one jurisdiction—Washington, D.C.—there are no Chase branches or ATMs within 90 miles, ensuring the funds will eventually be frittered away to the bank,” Bloomberg said.
A lawyer who served on a Washington jury last year, William Mark Scott, has sued the bank, accusing it of unjust enrichment and violation of the Consumer Protection Act. He’s seeking to represent all other jurors who were paid with JPMorgan debit cards, Bloomberg reported.
"Chase uses its monopolistic control over juror funds to steal captive jurors’ money by assessing unconscionable and deceptive fees," claimed Scott in the Bloomberg report. "By making it prohibitively expensive to receive an over-the-counter cash withdrawal from, or to receive a check drawn upon the debit card, Chase ensures a ‘rump’ balance will be left on each debit card—and forfeited."