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I got on jury duty today

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I have to go in again for j.d. this Monday. I think this is my fifth time being called; I've only had to sit on one jury, where we listened to four and a half days of riveting testimony to issue a $40 verdict. Yeah, that was really worth all our time.
 
The one time I actually had to sit on a jury it amazed me how little time we actually spent in the court room.

The trial took 3.5 days, of which I think we spent 4 hours in the court room listening to testimony / the judge / etc.

We spent more time deliberating than they did presenting ... lol.

However... we spent the vast majority of the time sitting in the jury room drinking coffee (free) and reading old magazines. (I think jury rooms get hand me down magazines from Dr.'s offices.)
 
I was called in for a Federal Case where they were seeking the death penalty. The defendants were of middle eastern decent and when interviewed I say "They look guilty to me." When asked how I felt about the death penalty I say "Anyone who kills someone else should be put to death." and I was out in 10 mins. While this is not how I really feel there is no way I want to go there every day sitting in traffic for 2 hour each way and get paid $40 a day...
 
Originally posted by: JRock
When asked how I felt about the death penalty I say "Anyone who kills someone else should be put to death." While this is not how I really feel
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Thats exactly how I feel about premeditated, intentional murders. Pay with their life...one bullet to the head.

 
JRock, that's a terrible thing to do. If everyone who is inconvenienced decides not to serve their civic duty, the jury pool will be very small and skewed. It undermines our whole judicial system. I'm glad judges are starting to crack down on this stuff. In your case, the judge should have said "fine, you don't have to serve, but you can show up here every day and sit in the jury room for the duration of the trial".
 
Originally posted by: tagej
JRock, that's a terrible thing to do. If everyone who is inconvenienced decides not to serve their civic duty, the jury pool will be very small and skewed. It undermines our whole judicial system. I'm glad judges are starting to crack down on this stuff. In your case, the judge should have said "fine, you don't have to serve, but you can show up here every day and sit in the jury room for the duration of the trial".
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I'm sure they can find plenty of people would would love to sit around and do nothing and make $40 a day. I am not one of them...
 
Honestly, considering how a medium to long duration jury trial DOES inconvenience people as far as money goes, I wouldn't want to be on trial. While I know it's my civic duty, if it was anything more than a few days long trial, I don't think ANYONE other than someone who is on salary with a company and it's the company's policy to pay employee's full salary while on jury duty would NOT be thinking about all the bills that they have to pay and how much this is inconveniencing them. I know I would. And yes, I would answer honestly and if that led to me surving on a jury, so be it. But I can tell you that fact would distract me atleast part of the time if not most of the time for the trial. I know that's not good for the person on trial, but hey, I'm as human as the next guy. That is what is wrong with our jury system IMO. If there was some way to properly compensate someone for their lost wages so they wouldn't have any problems with serving on a trial, I think it would dramatically help out the system. And yes, that would cost alot of $$$ but I'm sure there's someway to try and implement something like this. Maybe make it a law that company's have to reimburse their employees for jury duty?? I don't know, just a suggestion.
 
Originally posted by: JRock
Originally posted by: tagej
JRock, that's a terrible thing to do. If everyone who is inconvenienced decides not to serve their civic duty, the jury pool will be very small and skewed. It undermines our whole judicial system. I'm glad judges are starting to crack down on this stuff. In your case, the judge should have said "fine, you don't have to serve, but you can show up here every day and sit in the jury room for the duration of the trial".
Click to expand...

I'm sure they can find plenty of people would would love to sit around and do nothing and make $40 a day. I am not one of them...
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Those people have half a brain, and shouldn't be asked to do critical thinking for the sake of someones life.
 
Originally posted by: JRock
I'm sure they can find plenty of people would would love to sit around and do nothing and make $40 a day. I am not one of them...
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That's the whole point. If everyone who is smart opts out of the process and the only people that do their duty are those who are happy to earn just $40 per day and don't mind being inconvenienced, then what does that do to the judicial system? Would you like to be on trial for something (perhaps wrongly accused of something) and realize that your fate is in the hands of a group of people consisting of only those who were not "smart" enough to get out of it? I'd hope not.
 
Originally posted by: tagej
Originally posted by: JRock
I'm sure they can find plenty of people would would love to sit around and do nothing and make $40 a day. I am not one of them...
Click to expand...
That's the whole point. If everyone who is smart opts out of the process and the only people that do their duty are those who are happy to earn just $40 per day and don't mind being inconvenienced, then what does that do to the judicial system? Would you like to be on trial for something (perhaps wrongly accused of something) and realize that your fate is in the hands of a group of people consisting of only those who were not "smart" enough to get out of it? I'd hope not.
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You got that right. I've been called for jury duty a number of times and every time I go with the idea of getting out of it. Then, I hear some of the LAMEST excuses for getting out of jury duty ever heard and I just have to serve out of embarrasment for the human race.
 
Originally posted by: JRock
Originally posted by: tagej
JRock, that's a terrible thing to do. If everyone who is inconvenienced decides not to serve their civic duty, the jury pool will be very small and skewed. It undermines our whole judicial system. I'm glad judges are starting to crack down on this stuff. In your case, the judge should have said "fine, you don't have to serve, but you can show up here every day and sit in the jury room for the duration of the trial".
Click to expand...

I'm sure they can find plenty of people would would love to sit around and do nothing and make $40 a day. I am not one of them...
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Well, here's hoping karma doesn't bite you in the ass later in life and you need to have a jury of your peers who are dumb as bricks.
 
Originally posted by: Looney
Originally posted by: JRock
Originally posted by: tagej
JRock, that's a terrible thing to do. If everyone who is inconvenienced decides not to serve their civic duty, the jury pool will be very small and skewed. It undermines our whole judicial system. I'm glad judges are starting to crack down on this stuff. In your case, the judge should have said "fine, you don't have to serve, but you can show up here every day and sit in the jury room for the duration of the trial".
Click to expand...

I'm sure they can find plenty of people would would love to sit around and do nothing and make $40 a day. I am not one of them...
Click to expand...

Well, here's hoping karma doesn't bite you in the ass later in life and you need to have a jury of your peers who are dumb as bricks.
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I agree. I've never tried to lie to get out of jury duty. If think if I was the guy on trial I would want some intelligent competent people deciding my fate, not a bunch of 80 year old retired ladies and a couple of hippies who use their jury money to buy hemp necklaces. I owe it to the country and our jury system to be honest.
 
Here's a question (not toward any previous poster in particular, just in general)... if your employer still paid you for the days you sat on jury duty, would you be more inclined to serve, or would you still try to get out of it?

I get my pay plus I get to keep my daily $$ from the court.

Although when I sat on a jury the daily $$ was not enough to cover parking and lunch... lol.. I think I lost $5-10 each day.
 
Originally posted by: theknight571
Here's a question (not toward any previous poster in particular, just in general)... if your employer still paid you for the days you sat on jury duty, would you be more inclined to serve, or would you still try to get out of it?

I get my pay plus I get to keep my daily $$ from the court.

Although when I sat on a jury the daily $$ was not enough to cover parking and lunch... lol.. I think I lost $5-10 each day.
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Absolutely, I would love to serve if that were the case. As interesting as court trials are and my willing-ness to participate in the legal system, it doesn't pay bills. I'm not foolish to live paycheck by paycheck, but it takes quite a lot out of you and your pay if you end up serving a lengthy trial. Also sometimes projects or clients at work are taken care of by you specifically, telling them you have to do jury duty and such leaves a bad feeling in my mouth.
 
Last time I had jury duty the only case I got on was a gang beating. 20 or so 18th Street gang members beat and stabbed some MS13 gang banger. Definitely not boring.
 
Originally posted by: tagej
Originally posted by: JRock
I'm sure they can find plenty of people would would love to sit around and do nothing and make $40 a day. I am not one of them...
Click to expand...
That's the whole point. If everyone who is smart opts out of the process and the only people that do their duty are those who are happy to earn just $40 per day and don't mind being inconvenienced, then what does that do to the judicial system? Would you like to be on trial for something (perhaps wrongly accused of something) and realize that your fate is in the hands of a group of people consisting of only those who were not "smart" enough to get out of it? I'd hope not.
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I'm smart enough to NOT be on trial in the first place.
 
31 years old living in a city of 90,000 with plenty of crime and never called to duty. How the heck do some of you get called multiple times?!
 
Originally posted by: JRock
Originally posted by: tagej
Originally posted by: JRock
I'm sure they can find plenty of people would would love to sit around and do nothing and make $40 a day. I am not one of them...
Click to expand...
That's the whole point. If everyone who is smart opts out of the process and the only people that do their duty are those who are happy to earn just $40 per day and don't mind being inconvenienced, then what does that do to the judicial system? Would you like to be on trial for something (perhaps wrongly accused of something) and realize that your fate is in the hands of a group of people consisting of only those who were not "smart" enough to get out of it? I'd hope not.
Click to expand...

I'm smart enough to NOT be on trial in the first place.
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Like the Duke lacrosse players? The only thing that saved them from facing a jury was some good lawyering and lots of attention from the news media.
 
Originally posted by: Linflas
Originally posted by: JRock
Originally posted by: tagej
Originally posted by: JRock
I'm sure they can find plenty of people would would love to sit around and do nothing and make $40 a day. I am not one of them...
Click to expand...
That's the whole point. If everyone who is smart opts out of the process and the only people that do their duty are those who are happy to earn just $40 per day and don't mind being inconvenienced, then what does that do to the judicial system? Would you like to be on trial for something (perhaps wrongly accused of something) and realize that your fate is in the hands of a group of people consisting of only those who were not "smart" enough to get out of it? I'd hope not.
Click to expand...

I'm smart enough to NOT be on trial in the first place.
Click to expand...

Like the Duke lacrosse players? The only thing that saved them from facing a jury was some good lawyering and lots of attention from the news media.
Click to expand...

Don't put yourself in that situation...
 
I have only been called once, and after filling out a 42 page survey we all got told that the case was settled out of court a week before the jury was going to be chosen.
 
This past summer, I had to go for civil jury duty. They esitmated it would take 3 1/2 weeks. It was a lawsuit for a wrongful death case involving power tools and user error. I was able to get off because I have family members that are in a very similar position to one of the defendents. I would still have gotten full pay from my company but we had just recently went through system upgrades and were chasing down bugs all over the place. I just couldn't afford to not be there since my group only consists of a handful of people and I was the only person besides my VP that knew the ins and outs of the system.

Vague details of the case:
The guy(deceased) modified a power sander the way he shouldn't have (like taking off the handle on the side for control so he could fit a bigger saw blade that wasn't made for that sander, and then using it to cut a pipe and using his leg as support for the pipe...). The family was suing the group that hired him - a church, the company who sold the sander, the company who makes the sander, and the company who sold the larger saw blade. Unfortunately, just listening the preliminary, it sounded like the guy was doing something dangerous and probably would have sided against the plaintiff so I guess it was good for them I wasn't in the pool. Actually by the time it got to me, I would have been an alternate as they already picked the jury.
 
I was called about 6 weeks ago. The case was dropped while we waited for about 3 hours in the Jury room. I was a little disappointed, as I thought it would be interesting to participate in the legal process.

Of course, I was getting paid my salary pluse the $12/day stipend. I would have probably resented it if I was losing a lot of money in the process.
 
Well, the case ended today with the defendant entering a guilty plea after two testimonies by the witnesses.
It was educational, and actually I had some fun despite my initial expectations.

I'll tell more about it tomorrow, have to go to bed now.
 
Originally posted by: apac
Silly question, if you get jury duty while salaried with a company, do they make you take paid time off for it? If so, fvck $15 a day, I want my paid days off!
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A lot of companies pay you for jury duty, but you have to turn over your $15 paycheck to your company.
 
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