Jury duty PIA or proud to serve?
 

Jury duty PITA or proud to serve?
How about your comments and expariences.
I have jury duty coming up in January, 2008. I have done it many times before but I am not looking forward to it.
It would be funny if I got on a case where someone has been using one of those illegal alternate fuels.

I've always managed to get excused from jury duty, and I really want to do it. Three times, in fact.

It is about clearing the Court's calendar
 

I have had a look at it from the "other side" for more years than I care to remember.

Jury panels are assembled when it becomes pretty clear that the criminal or civil case is not going to "settle" and it looks like there will be a trial.

The reason most of the time many jurors get called, go to the Courthouse, and sit around for hours in some "Jury assembly room" reading newspapers and old magazines and doing nothing, is because there is last ditch haggling by the lawyers going on; the presence of potential "jurors" down the hall, ready to go, gives a HUGE incentive to get the case settled, or plea bargained, and one more case off the Court's calendar.

You would be surprised at what goes on "behind the scenes" while you are sitting around and waiting to be called into Court to serve on the jury - or sent home, having done nothing all day. The very fact you were there at all actually helps the course of justice move along when your presence caused an intractible case to "settle".

You should hear the stories people tell the Judge to try to evade jury duty.

Don't EVER try "My grandmother died in Texas and I have to go to the funeral", that is the oldest one in the book, they will laugh in your face soooooo hard.


An imperfect scenario, perhaps, but I have yet to see a better one come along

Three years ago I served on Grand Jury for four months. We met as the case load required which ended up being about 1-2 days per month. Grand Jury was very eye opening. I did not realize how many felony level crimes were being charged in the rural county that I live in.

I would say about 98% of the cases were so blatantly obvious of being felony level. In about 20% of the cases my thought was that this does not need to go to trial....get a rope and save the tax money now. Then there was one case where a baby died as a result of the negligence of about eight people. The prosecutor wanted a fish to fry and quite frankly all of us on the Grand Jury wanted to take a baseball bat to all eight, but buy law there was no 'smoking gun' in the case and no one was charged.:beadyeyes

It was a learning experience and I am glad for the opportunity. With that said I don't think that I would care to serve on a trial jury.

I hate jury duty and luckly have never been called in.

If I ever get stuck going I'll make up some story about being an equal opertunity racist looking to hang whoever is on trial. That should get me out.:D

They claim that you are selected from the voters registration list. However, I registered to vote at 18 and was not ever selected to go on jury duty until I was 32 years old (after I got a job with the Fed. Gov.). It is clear that after getting that job I was put on some sort of list.

I've been called a few times, and have felt it my duty to go.

I've been excused every time. I guess nobody wants an engineer on a jury panel...

I have always tried to avoid it too, and when there have never been picked. I am now wishing to be picked once so I can experience it.

Tom W

Then how do you know you hate it? As for the second commnet, you could be charged with contempt.

Trying to get out of jury duty: What works, what doesn't
 

Yeah, saying that will probably get you off the jury, (especially a criminal jury), but using it as a transparent ploy (they hear this kind of crap every day) to evade jury duty it would probably annoy the Judge enough to make him excuse you only from his Courtroom, and send you back to the jury assembly room to cool your heels all day until you get herded into the next courtroom to try your luck there.

Listen, Judges all day have to listen to people claiming they are too busy, they are such busy, hotshot realtors, or such important businessmen to waste their time on jury duty, and that they are so much better and more important than ordinary citizens that they should not have to bother with jury duty.

That attitude will get them a lecture about how along with the benefits of citizenship comes the burdens, one of which is serving on juries. It won't get them off jury duty, though.

If you have an upcoming honeymoon, or a vacation (and bring the airline tickets to prove it), have proof that you are so broke the wolves are at the door, and need to be out looking for work, or are a legal resident of another county, or absolutely honestly can't speak English and somehow are a citizen anyway, all of those things will almost certainly get you out of jury duty.

But "big business plans" won't, and saying that you "are the sole owner of a small business" will get you a lecture that nowhere is it written that small business owners and people in business for yourself, are exempt from jury duty, and that if ONE small business owner gets excused, then ALL small business owners would have to be excused, so that won't fly.

Now if the jury is going to be a six month long murder trial, the Courts often hand out "hardship questionaires" for potential jurors to fill out, because it is understood that making people be on a jury every day for half a year is likely to cause some real, recognizable hardships.

The jury pool database in California is comprised of names pulled at random from voter registration and DMV records.

If you ever voted or had a driver's license, your name can get picked for jury duty.

You can't be called for jury duty more than once per calendar year.

Most California county Courts are transitioning to the one day/one trial system. That is, you are on call for jury duty, and the day you are in the available jury pool is only ONE day, and then you are finished with your jury duty if you are not picked for a jury panel, or a panel of prospective jurors, that day.

If you DO get selected, though, it could be for ANY trial length, for less than a day, or even some 6 month long murder trial or something even longer.

Jurors get paid about $8 a day, and payment only starts AFTER they have been selected and sworn, and are actually actual jurors.

Spare me the lecture, I don't want to serve on a damn jury and will try to get out of it any way possible. If you enjoy it, please take my place.

I have better things to do then listened to other peoples problems. Guilty, next.

Really? How would they prove it?

What I have been told also works is you tell the lawyer that you really want to convict the SOB. Next...:D

Jury duty, other than the draft, is about the only time that our government requires its citizens to "show up." Think about that, it's that important. For those that only see a burden or imposition on their time or personal comfort, then perhaps democracy and the right to jury trial is too hard for you and this just isn't the country for you. :rolleyes: