When I was a young pup like this hatteras kid I spent a week on a medical malpractice case. I thought it was going to be hell. Turned out it was very interesting. It probably depends on the case. Don't kid yourself, that judge has heard more BS than you would ever think off, and yes they do take their job seriously.

The way it was phrased it is a gestimatie of the total time it would take to complete the trial. It could be longer or when I call to see if they still need me to report the night before July, 12th I could be told the do not need me.
Also there are only 4 Trial Days per week as due to Budget issues Wed. the Courthouse is closed.

Actually they have changed the law here in California. You have to show that you have an Extreme Financial issues and the Extreme part would be defined ounce I get to Court by the Judge.

I cannot claim that as I have not worked for 2 years. I am not exactly retired but my Wife Works, and we only have Utility Bills and our Daily Living expenses. House and aging Cars are paid for with no debts.

The basis of Mexico’s Justice system is extremely different from ours as is there Government so it is easy to understand how thier opinions of the Law and Government would be different.

Yes, I can, and was allowed by law immediately after the verdict was delivered to the court, and our service was ended by the judge.

I have a partial reconstruction I chronicled after the case. I will just have to retrieve/find it. Until then - here's some thoughts on it.........

When I saw with my own eyes fellow jurists - several disregarding testimony they had just heard for 5-days straight, it sickens you on how some jurists do their own thing - one young woman would not change her vote, and when polled after the verdict by the judge - she openly wept since she couldn't deliver a guilty verdict against the municipality in question, in favor of two scumbag slumlords that fed off of government checks to house mentally-disabled individuals in the deplorable, municipal code violations and lawbreaking conditions of a trashed-out former nursing home facility.

During the hours of deliberations, one by one all members of the jury that were originally voting to hold this municipality guilty of discrimination and breach of occupants rights, came over to where just three of us jurists were at. The two Hispanics of Mexican origin understood the case, but chose to try sticking it to the "man," (government.) I believe we needed 10 out of 12 to deliver a verdict on this case.

A person I know was felon with gun charges. They call him to do jury duty on a man with a gun charge, he went . hung jury man went free, They should have never let him on jury duty.

It is just the difference in People. I Have been on Jury Duty a bunch of times since 1980 and for me it has gotten to the point the I feel like I am being Drafted. I just feel I have served enough.
The law in CA has change and you can actually be called every year!

Concerning leavine the country if you came up for the Drart:
During the Vietnam War I joined the Army; but as it turned out I am lucky to have been sent to Germany instead of Vietnam.
But, I made my own choice to join; if I had been Drafted my feeling would have been different.

My best friend was a Conscientious Objector and his name came up on the list of potential draft choices about the time of the Paris Piece accords.

It was important to my Friend that how he felt would go on record and went through the procedure to try to get his Conscientious Objector Status upheld but he did not meet the Governments qualifications for that.

But, with the end of the actual fighting he was never actually Drafted.

Right and Wrong coexist.

It has been suggested that since they do not really know if you received the notice or not and that you could ignore the notice and if they did question you on not showing up you could claim you never received it.

Probably true, but I simply forgot. I they had asked, I would have told them that. The last time my wife recieved a notice, she was instructed to call the day before and a recording indicated which blocks of numbers were actually requied to show up.

Now now y'all... quit picking on hatterasguy. I am quite sure he is extremely meticulous in performing his civic duties in many other ways like voting

He is probably one of the first there, always helping with the vote boxes and certainly there all day helping the others who do their civic duty too.

I was actually just showing the laxness of the system. A mini injustice in the Justice System. The ones who obey the Law report and nothing happens to those who do not report.

I have another Thread from last year when my Wife became a Naturalized Citizen.

What is funny is that about 2 weeks before She was to be sworn in She got a Summons for Jury Duty!

She ask what She should do and I said (Her not yet being sworn in as a Citizen yet) that at the time She recieved the Summons She is not a Citizen and that is what She should answer.

It may be because of that answer that they never call Her again!

In Phoenix they seem to have a fairly small pool from which they draw quite frequently. I was summoned before I was a citizen, so it's clearly not just from a voters roll. My wife has been summoned several times but only had to go in once. I was called in a second time a few months ago. Hated the idea but was fortunate to be in a trial that was quite interesting, certainly an eye opener, had a decent jury, and only lasted a week. It would be a very different experience being stuck on one for months. Apart from financially impossible as well. One of the things that seemed quite apparent was that they didn't want anyone with any kind of connection to law enforcement on the panel.

- Peter.

In the case of my Wife after She passed Her Citizenship Test they offered her the Voting Regestration Form to fill out.
Somehow the Voting Regestration was faster than the next Citizenship Swearing in date.

While I was not officially arrested I was held for 4 hours in the Lawyer Prisoner interview room and released for Contempt of Court. The reason was I had refused to be sworn in as a Witness (the Defendant had already confessed to the crime).

When I told the Judge that and the as to why I refused to be Sworn they excused me.

When I was interviewed the last time I was selected for a Jury (panel) they ask if I would accept the testimony of a Psychologist as an expert Witness.

I basically said no because I did not believe they could predicet with any certainty why People did things.

I used that example that their ideas have pretty much stopped Coperal Punishment even in the Home and now Kids are running around shooting other Kids. And, that I believed that was part of the reason.

I also said that (from my Psychology class in College) the Psychology Book indicated that Children resent the Parents who Spank are supposed to be angry with their parents because of that.

And, I told them that I was not angry with my Parents for spanking me. (They only spanked me when I did something I knew I was not supposed to do so I viewed the punishment as being fair and it was not something that happened to me often.)

Anyway, I was booted of that Jury (Panel) also.

The above was me being sincere.

My childhood spans the 1950s-1960s. In my early childhood and early Teens Adults were clearly in power. There was no where you could go were Adults were not going to set you straight and report what you did to your Parents.
Your Parents were going to be embarrassed that you did something and were going to see to it; it did not happen again.
Society and Parents I believe took better care of their Children then.
I think I was lucky do be brought up during that time.

In the middle 1960s all of the above started to erode away. Due to more progressive ideas???

It sounds like you have a similar system to here.
I have been called on every 2 years for the past 20 years. Most times I get rejected by the defense (they can do that here). every time I have been on a panel the verdict has been guilty.
The last one I was on was a truck driver who had been driving for more than 24 hrs straight & went into to back of a car that was broken down on the side of a road. A young father was killed. It was a no win situation, every one was upset, the driver, the family of the deceased & the witnesses. I hated having to go in each day for 2 weeks & hear the details. He got 3 years.
An other I was on was a bank manager who was stealing from his bank. It was interested how smart he thought he had been. You nearly felt sorry for him, he was still a crook though!

Well, I am on my way to report to the Court Room for Jury Selection.

Let's see if I actually get picked picked for the Jury!

Out of 120 potential Jurors 30 are trying to claim the cannot served due to a unusual hardship.

They sent the rest of the potential Jurors like myself who are not trying to claim a hardship home while the process the above; and we return tomarrow.

The case is a Murder case involving 2 suspects. And it has 60 other counts of Attempted Murder.