Jury Duty

[JTK]

Around here if you don't show up a warrant will be issued and a deputy will be knocking on your door or come to your work and arrest you some time that day, they take it very serious here.

I've not attempted this, but my state/county threatens the same.

I know of a few people who've tossed them in the trash over the years with zero repercussion.

I've always thought how can they even prove you got your notice in the mail and in today's climate, are they really going to use resources to enforce this?

FWIW, I've been called for jury duty 3-4x. Been excused every time for various reasons.

 

[Dave Hess]

I once had jury duty, some of the jurors were very dumb and felt sorry for finding the criminal guilty of the crime.

No more jury duty for me…… even if they paid $1000 a day.

 

[Wolf359]

49 years on this earth and never selected for jury duty. I think it would be fun.

I've been on a few juries, wasn't really that much fun. The only times it's been interesting was when I was on a couple of mock jury trials for medical malpractice. Or whatever it was, they never really said. All I know was that it was a 2 day trial and I had signed up for one of those opinion survey places and a couple of times they called me up and wanted to know if I was available for a 2 day jury trial and it paid $400 for the two days. It definitely ended after 2 days and they wanted to know how the jury pool would vote so we didn't have to come to a unanimous verdict and they basically blasted through the case in a day and half and left the other half for deliberations and Q&A. Maybe it was some kind of mediation because the real doctors and expert witnesses were there and so was both sides of the case. Both times I voted not guilty which tended to be with the majority.

 

[Wolf359]

I once had jury duty, some of the jurors were very dumb and felt sorry for finding the criminal guilty of the crime.

No more jury duty for me…… even if they paid $1000 a day.

Well my $200/day was several years ago. I found it interesting. Yeah a few who voted guilty just felt sorry for the person who suffered the injury but it wasn't due to malpractice. Basically in both cases I was on, you had a set of expert witnesses say one thing and another set say the opposite. But the experts that were on the doctor's side getting sued was always better than the ones the plaintiff were using and you give the doctor the benefit of the doubt. That's why it's hard to win medical malpractice cases. Some of the people who wanted to say the doctors were guilty were kind of kooks, they had weird reasons or reasons that didn't make any sense. They basically did everything by the book. But if they had known the outcome, they could have done things differently. But then you'd get sued for doing things differently if the case didn't turn out right.

 

[Dinoburner]

Served on a federal jury years ago that involved drug dealers. It was like being on a Miami Vice set that frightened two female jurors to the point they wanted to be excused because a spectator was glaring at us. The judge corrected the situation. We found the defendant guilty.

 

[eljefino]

The gal saw her minivan and called the heat. When he was arrested the gal's groceries and baby stuff were still in the back seat. He tried to say she lent him the minivan cuz he was gonna renew the cloudy headlighs as he worked at a carwarsh.

Wow, did he do some italian tuneups and put acetone in the fuel then change the ATF four times?

 

[greenjp]

I was on a Federal grand jury about 17-18 years ago. It was an 18 month term, met every Wednesday. There was no questioning or anything, they just seated the first 20 people or so on the list. Some people got out of it due to financial hardships so we ended up mostly with retired folks, a few Federal employees (me included, the government pays full salary for any jury service), and a couple guys who were partners at firms.

Most of our cases involved drug trafficking. Lots of white collar crime too. We had a big case where we indicted the head of a local county school system, actually had to come back a few times after our term was officially over to finish that one.

It was an interesting experience. I was pretty impressed with the way everyone took it seriously, the federal attorneys, etc.

jeff

 

[LDB]

I would be more interested in participating if I wasn't in Harris County, Texas' largest. Too far to it, too much traffic, too expensive to participate. A few blocks either way and I'd be in one of two other counties, about the same distance but FAR less traffic and less expensive around those courthouses.

 

[blupupher]

I would be more interested in participating if I wasn't in Harris County, Texas' largest. Too far to it, too much traffic, too expensive to participate. A few blocks either way and I'd be in one of two other counties, about the same distance but FAR less traffic and less expensive around those courthouses.

I just take the Metro in.
I go to the nearest Park and Ride, show the Jury summons and you ride free.
Dropped off 2 or so blocks from the courthouse. Return trip can be slow if you are released before 3 pm (Park and Ride return buses don't run as often between 10 and 3), but not a bad day overall.

 

[LDB]

I just take the Metro in.
I go to the nearest Park and Ride, show the Jury summons and you ride free.
Dropped off 2 or so blocks from the courthouse. Return trip can be slow if you are released before 3 pm (Park and Ride return buses don't run as often between 10 and 3), but not a bad day overall.

I wasn't aware of that. If I get called again before I age out I'll have to check into that. Thanks!