Jury Duty

[Brovane]

Question:
Let's say I make ~$400 day in wages.

Do I lose those wages and have to settle for $40 day?
Do I lose vacation/personal days?

How do I get paid my normal wage without using vacation days?

If I had to burn vacation days or lose wages, this seems extremely unfair.

There is no legal requirement that you need to be paid for jury duty. So yes you could be told to show up even if you loose a day's wages from your present employer. Depending on the Judge even if you demonstrate financial hardship he could still order you to serve. If you try to leave the Baliff will take you into custody and be charged with contempt of court. When you are at the courts you are on their turf and it is best to very polite or you could have a very bad day.

 

[amdhunter]

.fixed

 

[amdhunter]

When you are at the courts you are on their turf and it is best to very polite or you could have a very bad day.

I know this already when I mouthed off to a judge that I had a job and couldn't take time off - and if forced to serve I'd purposefully find someone innocent who I was sure was guilty and vice versa.

I was pretty stupid back then, today I wouldn't mind sitting on a jury, but I still wouldn't want to use my own vacation days for it.

 

[Brovane]

I know this already when I mouthed off to a judge that I had a job and couldn't take time off - and if forced to serve I'd purposefully find someone innocent who I was sure was guilty and vice versa.

I was pretty stupid back then, today I wouldn't mind sitting on a jury, but I still wouldn't want to use my own vacation days for it.

It does suck if a employer offers no jury duty days.

For me my current employer does 30-days for Jury Duty. However I have never sat on a trial.

 

[Pheran]

I've only been called in once, and at first I thought it would be cool to be on a jury until I heard the topic of the case - it was something like "sexual abuse of a minor under age 9". Very glad I didn't get picked for that.

 

[SamQuint]

Most courts take into account how many days your employer pays or doesn't pay.

If you don't get paid or only are paid a few days then they will only put these people on cases they know will take 3 days or less. If your employer pays for 10 days they will put you on cases that will last a week.

Most government employees get unlimited paid jury duty. So these people and retired people are the ones that get the really long cases.

The courts know that they are wasting time calling people to a panel with a long trial that are not paid by their employer. All these people will plead hardship and they will end up dismissing them anyway.

 

[SamQuint]

TIP... If you are on a panel and want to get dismissed pretend to like one of the sides more than the other. When your favorite side speaks pay close attention and nod like you agree with everything. When the other side speaks, look away or roll your eyes or keep looking at your favorite side. The other team will surely dismiss you if they think you favor one side over the other.

 

[alkemyst]

Most companies have to pay you while you are on jury duty. Mine has a policy where it asks if you could donate the jury duty money you get back to the company to help with the costs of you not doing your job. Although, I haven't heard of anyone that has done that.

QFT...I have not heard of a company actually collecting on that though.

 

[Brovane]

TIP... If you are on a panel and want to get dismissed pretend to like one of the sides more than the other. When your favorite side speaks pay close attention and nod like you agree with everything. When the other side speaks, look away or roll your eyes or keep looking at your favorite side. The other team will surely dismiss you if they think you favor one side over the other.

The other thing to do is talk about Jury Nullification and that will get you booted very quickly.

 

[Brovane]

QFT...I have not heard of a company actually collecting on that though.

When my Mom worked for Capistrano Unified School District and she had jury duty the School District would demand any money they where paid while serving on Jury Duty be sent to the district since the district paid there full salaries while on jury duty.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Lol some Persian lady tried to get out of serving saying she didn't understand English. Judge called her out on it and started asking her a bunch of questions. She answered them all and the judge told her she's staying.

Later on they had some questions on the projector. When it came to the Persian lady she read and answered them all perfectly. Everyone in the pool was smirking.

 

[Demo24]

Most courts take into account how many days your employer pays or doesn't pay.

If you don't get paid or only are paid a few days then they will only put these people on cases they know will take 3 days or less. If your employer pays for 10 days they will put you on cases that will last a week.

Most government employees get unlimited paid jury duty. So these people and retired people are the ones that get the really long cases.

The courts know that they are wasting time calling people to a panel with a long trial that are not paid by their employer. All these people will plead hardship and they will end up dismissing them anyway.

I think this applies to me, as I've never seen any policy about it and I know I wouldn't get fired over it.

Sadly the court didn't seem to know that yesterday, excused me without even interviewing me. Mostly disappointed that I wasted all that time for nothing. :\

 

[SamQuint]

I think this applies to me, as I've never seen any policy about it and I know I wouldn't get fired over it.

Sadly the court didn't seem to know that yesterday, excused me without even interviewing me. Mostly disappointed that I wasted all that time for nothing. :\

I was sitting next to a government employee one time and he was telling me he was on a three month trial before and he was paid the whole time. He actually felt like it was a vacation.

I think I have the worst luck in jury duty. I get called pretty regularly and of the 10 or more times I have been called I have only been on 1 trial that went to a verdict. About 6 times I was on call and never was asked to go in and about 3 times I did go in but never made it on a panel. I think I was called to a panel about 3 times and was dismissed twice and the other time I actually saw the case and we reached the verdict.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Got dismissed from my past history on the subject matter of the case and financial burden.

Since I'm off now, it was a domestic violence case. The defendant was charged with false imprisonment and attempted murder of his wife along with a variety of other charges.

 

[alkemyst]

A company cannot fire you over jury duty.

Also most places are now starting to require jury picks to stay the full 8 hours. Even if you are dismissed/not picked for an early case you go back into the pool.

My court seems to pick me once I go past the 1 year mark lately. I have never been selected nor have even spoken to counsel. They select me, pull me out of the pool and march me and about 20+ others to a court room where we stand in line for 15-20mins only to be told we aren't needed and get put back into the pool for 2-3 hours.

It's a long day, but the last few times they have been playing decent movies.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

A company cannot fire you over jury duty.

Also most places are now starting to require jury picks to stay the full 8 hours. Even if you are dismissed/not picked for an early case you go back into the pool.

My court seems to pick me once I go past the 1 year mark lately. I have never been selected nor have even spoken to counsel. They select me, pull me out of the pool and march me and about 20+ others to a court room where we stand in line for 15-20mins only to be told we aren't needed and get put back into the pool for 2-3 hours.

It's a long day, but the last few times they have been playing decent movies.

They can't fire me but they don't have to pay me.

 

[tommo123]

The other thing to do is talk about Jury Nullification and that will get you booted very quickly.

this is what i came here to post.

 

[Demo24]

Got dismissed from my past history on the subject matter of the case and financial burden.

Since I'm off now, it was a domestic violence case. The defendant was charged with false imprisonment and attempted murder of his wife along with a variety of other charges.

Very similar case to what I was sitting on.

Also, financial burden? That what they told you or you told them?

 

[Blain]

I always wanted to do jury duty, especially for some crazy murder trial.

I have served on a murder trial (basically, a drug deal gone bad).
There's a lot of frustration in what evidence and testimony are/aren't allowed.
The verdict is to be rendered on only the evidence brought out at in the trial.
Although the whole experience was very interesting, I would not want to serve on another. It lasted 5 days and was emotionally draining.

BTW, My employer pays 100% for jury duty, - the $40 per day I received from the court (4 months later).

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Very similar case to what I was sitting on.

Also, financial burden? That what they told you or you told them?

That's what I told the judge when they sat me down as a potential juror. Told her my work would not pay for me to be here and 5 days would hit me hard. She dug a bit. Asked me what I do, who do I live with, who pays the rent, etc. She gave me a 3 month postponement but I don't think in 3 months I'll be making a ton more money to do the same thing either..

Girl at the check out desk said the same thing and showed me how to file for a financial burden/hardship waiver online and that's what I did.

 

[smackababy]

Is there like a sign up list or something where you can increase your chances of getting on jury duty? I want to be a juror! I am a man and I am angry! I could easily be one of 12 Angry Men.

 

[MtnMan]

The other thing to do is talk about Jury Nullification and that will get you booted very quickly.

People don't realize that a single juror is the most powerful person in the courthouse once the judge had charged the jury to come to a verdict, and jury nullification is where that power exists.

 

[microAmp]

People don't realize that a single juror is the most powerful person in the courthouse once the judge had charged the jury to come to a verdict, and jury nullification is where that power exists.

Jury nullification as you stated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqH_Y1TupoQ&list=UU2C_jShtL725hvbm1arSV9w

 

[Demo24]

That's what I told the judge when they sat me down as a potential juror. Told her my work would not pay for me to be here and 5 days would hit me hard. She dug a bit. Asked me what I do, who do I live with, who pays the rent, etc. She gave me a 3 month postponement but I don't think in 3 months I'll be making a ton more money to do the same thing either..

Girl at the check out desk said the same thing and showed me how to file for a financial burden/hardship waiver online and that's what I did.

, you just purchased a 40k BMW. I think I'd be more concerned that I couldn't make it off work for 5 days versus a nice new car.

 

[smackababy]

, you just purchased a 40k BMW. I think I'd be more concerned that I couldn't make it off work for 5 days versus a nice new car.

I think it was because he would be receiving no income while on jury duty. If he was the primary source of income in his household, and he no longer had that source of income, it would be financial burden. It has nothing to do with his lifestyle or car purchases, more due to the fact that a trial can last an infinite amount of days. If it lasts beyond a couple of days, his household is going to be missing that income; and if it lasts like 30 days, he could be significantly burdened by it.