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freebooter posted:How does this work? Wouldn't you lose your job? I guess the state could bar your employer from letting you go, but even then, that's a hassle for them to have a space to fill for a year. In most (some?) states, your employer has to pay your normal wages for the first few days (3 days in MA IIRC), and the piddling allowance only kicks in if the trial lasts beyond that.
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Jan 19, 2015 15:32
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When my husband was on grand jury here in NC he had to go one specific Monday a month for a year. It was a huge pain in the rear end for him because he's a professor and would have to not have one of his classes once a month.
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Jan 19, 2015 15:38
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Grand juries are a bit different than regular juries. Grand juries are mostly a check on prosecutors to make sure they aren't going crazy with prosecution powers. That said, it's commonly accepted that any halfway decent prosecutor could indict a ham sandwich. And the grand jury won't say poo poo.
thrakkorzog fucked around with this message at 15:54 on Jan 19, 2015 |
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Jan 19, 2015 15:52
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Ignoring the summons depends on municipality. Quick google search reveals that in my locale, people ignore them year after year with no consequence.
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Jan 19, 2015 16:17
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First time I had to do Jury Duty in 2009 everyone told me that I wouldn't ever even have to see the inside of a courtroom, but of course, end of the day they gather everyone up in the waiting room and tell us all to come back at 8 AM tomorrow. From there I had to sit in the courtroom for another 3-4 days while they selected a jury, all while stressing out because I had classes starting in a week and didn't think to postpone. The only real bad part was how drat drawn out the jury selection process is, I get that they have to account for all biases but they had no problem letting people tell their life story. Add in some 2-3 hour lunch breaks and we were only managing to get through a handful of people a day, out of a pool of 50 or more of us. The case itself was an attempted murder by an accused gang member, the lawyer for the defendant really seemed like he didn't have any interest being there and the prosecutions lawyer came off as a smug prick. I was pretty happy when I got off though, the judge was pretty considerate of anyone with pressing time concerns and I believe that most the people who seemed like they were staying on were retirees or people who otherwise wouldn't be excessively burdened. Added bonus was that this was all right before New Years, so almost everyone was grumpy about losing their vacation time or time to spend with relatives, as far as I know if I didn't get off when I did it would of been dragged out an extra week because of time they have to take off. Since then I haven't ever had to go in again, just do the online check and most of the time after 5 days they tell you you're good. Nanomachine Son fucked around with this message at 16:51 on Jan 19, 2015 |
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Jan 19, 2015 16:48
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ElectroMagneticJosh posted:It wasn't too much of a pain for my as the company I work for pays your standard salary while you are one Jury Duty for a given amount of weeks (not sure exactly because the trial I was on lasted Monday afternoon to Friday evening of the same week). It's part of the organisation's "we-are-good-members-of-the-community" image; the only rule is that I needed to give them the piddly cheque I recieved in exchange for my regular pay. I had to do the same thing. My last job wanted the check endorsed over to them in exchange for getting my normal salary. I also got three or four requests from my boss via email to try and get out of it however I could legally do so. I didn't even try just to spite the guy - a PHB par excellence, but that's another story. I was called for grand jury service in Elizabeth, NJ. Standard county stuff. You showed up into a big courtroom with a hundred-plus people. The judge gave a rundown of the service and what it entailed, asked if people being here would cause hardship, if anyone had any medical issues, or if anyone had family or friends who practiced law in the county court. Never offered the opportunity to ask questions, so there goes asking about jury nullification, but that doesn't even apply to grand jury. They picked numbers, seemingly at random, and I was among the lucky people. Tuesdays and Thursdays for around eight weeks we came in and heard cases. Mostly drug cases, one where a guy was accused of stealing from the till where he worked, and the singular best one: an off-duty cop was stuck in traffic down the Garden State Parkway, not at all uncommon. He saw the guy in the car next to him literally snorting something up his nose sitting in traffic. It was actually a pretty enjoyable experience. There was frequent downtime so you could bring books, personal electronics in the waiting room, and the grand jury administrator was this wonderful outgoing maternal type who really made sure we were enjoying what we were doing as best we could. Plus now I know where to go should I ever need to score heroin. Given the volume of cases it kinda underscores the heroin epidemic going on, actually. Easily 95% of the many cases we heard were "this person was observed distributing drugs, here's why we want to prosecute, here's what they had, here's what they said when they were arrested." The takeaway: if you get arrested, the only words out of your mouth should be "I do not waive my right to remain silent. I want to talk to an attorney."
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Jan 19, 2015 16:48
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My last jury duty I got picked for the jury pool for sexual assault on a minor trial. The process for seating the jury was a little different, as there was an additional questionnaire that asked about any experience with sexual abuse with you or a loved one, and a number of other things. Because of the private nature of the questions, they reviewed them and then took a whole day talking to people privately in the judge's quarters while the rest of us sat doing nothing. One of the questions was "do you have a case pending before the court in this county?" I had a traffic accident case pending, so I answered yes and was invited into quarters to discuss it with the judge, prosecutor, defendant and defense attorney. This is where things got weird. I think the prosecutor was trying to figure out if my case would be over before the trial started, because she started asking me about my case, how I was planning to plead, and if I was at fault for the accident and was planning on pleading guilty. At this point the defense attorney jumped in, saying "we are not here to try SVO's case. I am appalled that you would be asking him these questions without benefit of counsel and I would advise him to not answer any further questions without talking to his lawyer, etc." A bit of grandstanding, but it was really odd to have the prosecutor ask me straight up "so are you guilty?" At that point there was a conference between the judge and attorneys and then they were done with my conference. As soon as they started open questions and jury selection, I was let go, but I still had to wait a while for that to happen. The other weird part was that as far as I know, the defendant was there for all of the private conferences. Which means that some people may have had to discuss their past sexual trauma with a person charged with a sex crime listening in.
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Jan 19, 2015 17:15
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Last time I was called to jury duty I was placed on a trial dealing with drugs and weapons. The defendant did a jersey roll through a stop sign behind a cop car while carrying 2 pounds of coke and a large revolver--all with his kids in the back. The guy's lawyer tried several things to get the stop and search thrown out (like pure coke doesn't smell because the cop stated the car smelled like there was coke hidden somewhere) but none of us in the jury were convinced. The lawyer put up one of the sons who was in the car and admitted his father did jersey roll the stop sign which was somewhat funny to see the look on the lawyer's face when that happened. The case lasted for 6 days and at the end it was obvious everyone on the jury was tired. I believe I was the only one that still go paid by his company to be on the jury so everyone wanted this to be over quickly. Our deliberation took only 30 minutes to convict the guy of the drug and weapons charges. The interesting thing was that while everyone voted guilty for the drug charge the first time there were some not-guilty votes for the gun charge. We did a redo of that vote, without deliberating, now with everyone voting guilty for the gun charge. I didn't think anyone would try to pull a 12 Angry Men for this case but watching people fold instantly when they were against the grain was interesting. Another thing was that pretty much everyone but me and one other lady misremembered facts in the case, with some just making evidence up. I don't know if it was people not paying attention or just trying to match evidence to what they plan on voting anyways.
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Jan 19, 2015 20:12
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ChairMaster posted:Does anybody have experience just pretending that their summons never made it to their house? I'm under the impression that they don't usually send those things by certified mail. It depends on where you live. Living in a county with a huge population and a decent sized city the police will absolutely not waste their time on bullshit like that. I've never gotten anything through certified mail either.
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Jan 19, 2015 22:56
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I have jury duty tomorrow actually. This is an oddly timely thread. I'll report back tomorrow as I'm bored in the waiting room!
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Jan 20, 2015 01:54
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kedo posted:I have jury duty tomorrow actually. This is an oddly timely thread. I'll report back tomorrow as I'm bored in the waiting room! You usually can't bring phones into the court house. At least I couldn't. Both times (once Michigan, once Colorado) I watched the video, didn't get selected for any cases, and missed about two hours of work.
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Jan 20, 2015 02:23
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Thankfully:The summons posted:Cell and smart phones, iPads, iPods, laptops, tablets, eReaders are allowed I'd imagine it probably varies by state, and I wouldn't be surprised if it changed in the last few years. I requested a deferment because I'm a freelancer and a week spent serving jury duty is a week none of my clients are being serviced, but it was denied. I wouldn't be surprised if this was one of the reasons they now allow laptops and phones... "oh, but you can work while you wait!" kedo fucked around with this message at 03:06 on Jan 20, 2015 |
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Jan 20, 2015 03:02
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When I went jurors were allowed phones but every other non courthosue staff had to lock them up in these mini locker vending machine things.
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Jan 20, 2015 05:16
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^^^ Yeah, that's how my courthouse handled it too. I walked into security with my phone and laptop, they asked if I was a juror and it was all fine and dandy. A couple of other people who were in line for cases had to go and put theirs away in lockers. My story in a nutshell: got there at 9:00. Sat around drinking coffee and reading in a room full of other jurors for ~30 minutes while stragglers appeared and the guy scheduled to do our orientation mucked about. Orientation from 9:30 to 9:50 which was the Complete Idiot's Guide to the Justice System and general info and logistics (eg. when to put more money in your parking meter, when lunch break occurs, etc). Told we would be heading into court right around 10:00 for jury selection. Continued to sit around until 10:50 when we were notified the defendant in the case took a plea deal and we could all go home for the day. Really it seems like they should work out plea deals before they truck a load of people in and dish out $30 to everyone.
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Jan 20, 2015 19:08
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I was called for service here in L.A. a couple of times before I was actually picked to go through juror selection. What made it a real L.A. moment is that the judge's last name was "Wapner" and he began his instructions by saying "Yes, I am the son of Judge Wapner from 'People's Court.'" I was eliminated by the defense because I'd worked in law enforcement. The second time I was called for selection I wound up on the jury. The defendant was pulled over with a single stolen check in his car and the prosecutor was making a case for intent to defraud. It took two days to complete the trial and it struck me that it was no wonder the court system was overloaded when petty poo poo like this gets the full Perry Mason treatment. The highlight of the trial was the defendant's father in law who was an old dreadlocked hippy that behaved like most of his brain cells had been burned out. The young prosecutor became increasingly frustrated by this fellow's inability to remember pretty much anything and he kept saying unintentionally funny poo poo that was making everyone including the judge laugh. When it was time to deliberate I was expecting an easy acquittal because although the defendant had a history of petty crime the prosecution case was weak and it was unclear if the guy even knew the check was in his car. I was surprised by how many people were ready to vote 'guilty' based on the man's record. I kept pointing out that the prosecutor herself had told us to stick purely to the facts of the case and after an hour or so managed to get everyone to agree to acquit. I feel very strongly about seeing guilty people punished but the facts didn't support the charge and I wanted to do my part to make the system work. It doesn't work unless the prosecution can prove their case, not just that someone is a weasel. It was touching to see his family's explosion of happiness when the verdict was read and I hope that dude stops loving up.
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Jan 20, 2015 20:19
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Currently on Jury Duty for a civil case so I can't talk about any subject matter, but as far as the process goes its been drawn out and full of all sorts of delays. There have been days where we'll hear testimony for 10 minutes, an objection will be raised, and we'll be excused back to the deliberation room to wait for over an hour. I assume while the lawyers argue for their sides. The trial actually started before end of year last year, then there was a break for the holidays and we picked back up this month. We already lost some jurors, so the alternates had to fill in. We're out of alternates now so its just the main jury panel. The trial is on hold another 2 weeks because one of the jurors has some sort of business commitment they can't get out of and there's no alternate to take their place, so we wait to continue when they get back.
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Jan 20, 2015 21:48
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I've got duty tomorrow, as it happens. Super excited, I get paid for up to 2 weeks off work so I hope it's not just one and done. Or maybe it'll just be crazy boring and I'll be hating life.
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Jan 20, 2015 22:40
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I was on a 4 week long medical negligence case. Man in his 60s gets hit while driving through an intersection; gets taken to a hospital by an ambulance. He happens to arrive minutes before the attending doctor is scheduled to leave; case falls in the hands of the medical resident; a neurosurgeon was called (the call lasts about 10 minutes) but a key question was whether the doctors "consulted" on the case. The patient is eventually discharged after the nurse conducts and documents a "road" test for discharging purposes. Man wakes up the next morning and is paralyzed from the chest down. Who is at fault? The hospital? The attending trauma/ER doctor? The medical resident? The neurosurgeon who may/may not have consulted on this case? In the end, we awarded the man about $3 million and found the hospital and attending doctor at fault.
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Jan 21, 2015 14:21
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ChairMaster posted:Does anybody have experience just pretending that their summons never made it to their house? I'm under the impression that they don't usually send those things by certified mail. You would be shocked how many people ignore their jury summons. I'm the type of person who would be pretty drat freaked if any government agency was threatening me with jail time and/or fines, but some people literally couldn't care less and just pitch their summons as soon as they get it. If you do this, you probably won't wind up in federal prison or anything like that but I'd assume you'd get a bench warrant at the most and possibly be forced to pay a fine. Just do what I did and write them a note on eJuror. usually if you're reasonable and honest they'll let you postpone your service (AKA push it off to a latter date and probably not call you again) because as I said, so many people ignore these things that they'll just be happy you bothered responding at all.
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Jan 21, 2015 17:27
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Dick Trauma posted:I was called for service here in L.A. a couple of times before I was actually picked to go through juror selection. What made it a real L.A. moment is that the judge's last name was "Wapner" and he began his instructions by saying "Yes, I am the son of Judge Wapner from 'People's Court.'" I was eliminated by the defense because I'd worked in law enforcement. The case was two homeless guys who had a fight, one was charged with assault. The complaining witness seemed pretty out of it and there wasn't much evidence as to who started it, or who got injured. Acquitted the defendant in about an hour of discussion with very little disagreement during deliberations. Worst part was that the case was only heard from 10 to 4 each day with an hour and a half break for lunch. Not very efficient use of everyone's time. Best part was hearing the lame excuses half the people gave to the judge to try and get out of doing it. He didn't make anyone stay for the actual case who really didn't want to, but he made them sit through the two days of selection and berated everyone who gave terrible reasons that they couldn't serve.
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Jan 22, 2015 00:41
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Well, just "finished" my jury duty in relatively unspectacular fashion. I checked the reporting website last night after 5:00 like they ask you to and was told I wouldn't need to report. Then this morning at 9:08 I received an email telling me I had jury duty at 9:40, and of course I didn't see the email until about 11:00. Called up the jury coordinator asking wtf. Apparently the case today ended in a plea deal too. She acted like she didn't believe me when I told her I checked the website, and then five seconds later said, "But we did have another person experience the same problem last night."  Kinda bummed I didn't get to take part in a case. That would have at least been interesting. But their reporting system leaves a lot to be desired.
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Jan 22, 2015 17:30
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I ended up on a jury for a 2-day trial. The defendant was a woman who called elderly people and told them they were behind on their utilities. If the person in question was gullible enough, she'd send out her boyfriend to pick up money. Eventually the boyfriend and his brother started breaking into houses, looking for bigger scores. They eventually got hauled in after breaking into the home of an 82 year old woman who they'd scammed the year before. She was charged with 1st degree burglary and robbery, and conspiracy to commit both. The major point of contention was of whether she'd actually aided/abetted this particular break-in. I was selected as an alternate, so I didn't actually bear witness to the deliberations. I asked the clerk to let me know what happened -- turns out that after only 10 minutes of deliberation, she was found guilty of all charges. 25 years. I didn't think it was that cut and dry, but everyone seemed to just want to go home.
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Jan 23, 2015 02:19
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Not a Children posted:I was selected as an alternate, so I didn't actually bear witness to the deliberations. I asked the clerk to let me know what happened -- turns out that after only 10 minutes of deliberation, she was found guilty of all charges. 25 years. I didn't think it was that cut and dry, but everyone seemed to just want to go home. Jesus, she sounds like a piece of poo poo, but that's the kind of sentence you'd get for premeditated murder in a lot of the world. Maybe a touch too far?
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Jan 23, 2015 02:47
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Rockker posted:The trial actually started before end of year last year, then there was a break for the holidays and we picked back up this month. We already lost some jurors, so the alternates had to fill in. We're out of alternates now so its just the main jury panel. The trial is on hold another 2 weeks because one of the jurors has some sort of business commitment they can't get out of and there's no alternate to take their place, so we wait to continue when they get back. When poo poo like this happens does the dude got to sit in jail waiting over Christmas and for the dude to get back?
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Jan 23, 2015 16:08
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I was on a jury last year for a 4 day trial. We went through all 4 days and they ended up settling right after the final arguments so none of us even got to talk about the case with one another (you have to wait until everything is done). The case had to do with a labor dispute in a low income lodging house. The building manager hired one of the residents under the table as a janitor without telling the owner. This went on for a few years and the janitor decided to sue the owner because he felt like he was underpaid and mistreated. It was a pretty interesting look into the lives of the people in that building (which is notorious in this gentrified town as being full of sex offenders and other ex felons). The janitor's arguments included that he was basically on call 24 hours a day in a building full of crazy people who thought it was funny to wake him up at 4 am to clean something. He also had to get into the dumpster a few times and jump on the trash so they could fit more (all while the trash was prob full of needles).
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Jan 23, 2015 16:22
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PT6A posted:Jesus, she sounds like a piece of poo poo, but that's the kind of sentence you'd get for premeditated murder in a lot of the world. Maybe a touch too far? Honestly, I had been thinking that a conviction on all 4 counts (robbery, burglary, conspiracy to commit robbery, and conspiracy to commit burlary, all in the first degree) would be pretty hard -- I didn't think it was that clear that she was involved with that particular hit on that particular night. But the prosecution had been making appealing to emotion throughout, the victim's daughters had been put on the stand, and we had a videotaped confession that she had been aware of the break-ins and had been helping to run the utility scam, and was getting a cut of what was taken. It seemed the circumstantial evidence was enough for the jury to convict within minutes. The maximum penalty possible in this case was 70 years. They do not gently caress around with premeditated B&Es in Maryland
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Jan 23, 2015 16:58
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I legitimately don't believe in the legal system and find it to be so rigged in favor of the wealthy that it's LAUGHABLE to me that they force ordinary citizens to waste their precious lives (likely the only one they'll ever have) just to bring a facade of legitimacy to the state and its dealings ("the rule of law".) When I tell it to the judge I'm immediately recused so I have no idea what it's like to actually serve on a jury.
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Jan 24, 2015 01:49
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Yea from reading these stories it's pretty obvious why anyone with a half a brain and graduated college would avoid it like the plague. soap. posted:For a month of service, I got like $250. I don't know how survive. I'm a small business people owner, and luckily my partner and our employee could pick up the slack. That's utterly absurd.
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Jan 24, 2015 21:14
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You are an absolute bitch-made fool if you are ever dumb enough to get picked for jury duty and actually make the jury. I lie straight to a judges face every time I'm selected. ______ is against my system of belief and I could not be impartial under any circumstance. Practice that poo poo and then laugh at your jury selection.
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Jan 25, 2015 06:27
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I've been called for jury duty at the local district courthouse three times. Each time they've told us that 750 were summoned and only 200-some odd showed up, which is roughly how many seats there are in the room they send us to.
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Jan 25, 2015 08:16
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tsa posted:Yea from reading these stories it's pretty obvious why anyone with a half a brain and graduated college would avoid it like the plague.
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Jan 25, 2015 09:39
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My company pays salary for any time spent jury duty, which makes me WANT to partake in Jury Duty just to see how ineffectual it can be (and still get paid by my company). Unfortunately it appears that you can't actually request a summons, because I think it could be a cool experience.
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Jan 25, 2015 18:35
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I recently finished a term of grand jury duty in NY. The terms last 4 weeks and it's M-F the whole time so you are plucked from your job for a month. Quite the interesting experience. Unlike trial jury there is no selection process, and if you serve the term you are exempt for the next 8 years. Pretty big mix of around 30+ cases: drug busts, carjackings, some huge ridiculous defrauding of the state, attempted murder, pedo creeps, robberies. Indicted the vast majority (but not all). Juror attrition can play a role in the outcome with long cases. I would have been curious to hear a case where the defendant was a police officer, I bet it would have been presented in a hilariously different manner. I think it's kind of funny how bad some people want to get out of jury duty- would you rather live somewhere where you are not entitled to a trial by jury?
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Jan 26, 2015 07:44
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Infinotize posted:I think it's kind of funny how bad some people want to get out of jury duty- would you rather live somewhere where you are not entitled to a trial by jury? I already do and from what I read here I don't think it's worse at all. Especially the idea of random people deciding your faith who may just be bored and want to go home is terrifying. Or the people hinted at here that seem to have the mentality of "if you were arrested you are probably guilty".
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Jan 26, 2015 10:07
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I've been a licensed driver and a registered voter for 35+ years and have never been called once, yet I know people who have sat on juries multiple times. 
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Jan 26, 2015 14:39
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PromethiumX posted:You are an absolute bitch-made fool if you are ever dumb enough to get picked for jury duty and actually make the jury. Keep in mind that if you tell the court you're a racist or some poo poo, you'll have told a court under penalty of perjury that you hate black people. Good luck getting a job if someone decides to do a comprehensive background check on you. soap. posted:
Why didn't you tell the court that you're a small business owner and couldn't possibly miss that much work? They usually don't want people serving on juries unless they go "hey sweet a day off work" because then they'd be pissed off and it'd probably skew their judgement. I know I'd be annoyed if this were the case for me. Captain Mog fucked around with this message at 17:07 on Jan 26, 2015 |
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Jan 26, 2015 17:04
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To Vex a Stranger posted:My company pays salary for any time spent jury duty, which makes me WANT to partake in Jury Duty just to see how ineffectual it can be (and still get paid by my company). Unfortunately it appears that you can't actually request a summons, because I think it could be a cool experience. MightyJoe36 posted:I've been a licensed driver and a registered voter for 35+ years and have never been called once, yet I know people who have sat on juries multiple times.
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Jan 27, 2015 03:48
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GWBBQ posted:My union contract (AFT local) mandates full pay and no retaliation for jury duty as long as it lasts. I feel like the hostility toward the idea would be greatly diminished if everyone were treated the same as I am under federal law. How many elections has he voted in in that time frame?
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Jan 27, 2015 08:01
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I'm currently serving as a juror for a civil case, and today was the first day of the trial. Perhaps I will make a more detailed post in this thread about my experiences after the trial has ended.
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Jan 28, 2015 01:44
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I was called in a few years ago. I don't know how accurate or specific to my state this is, but when we arrived at 8 in the morning, it was explained to us that the vast majority of cases settle before going to trial- but only once the lawyer is told that the room next door has 400 potential jurors waiting for selection. Sure enough, I ended up sitting in a waiting room for two 4 hour blocks without ever getting called to selection. Maybe 10% of the room was. It was kind of a pain in the rear end since I had the summer off and would have been happy to sit an actual trial, but I feel worse for the people who took time off of work for that.
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Jan 28, 2015 02:24
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