Jury duty

[chh]

I've been called 6 times that I can remember over the last 25 years. Twice I was working out of state and they excused me when I called in after getting the summons. I intended to show up once and ended up calling in the morning of the jury selection from an Emergency room where I had taken my father. I got a quick "Don't worry about it" and they didn't even ask to verify where I was. I served on one jury and found it to be very interesting and basically everyone on the jury was employed or self employed and all were really concerned about doing the right thing. I was excused after being picked for jury after the predicted trial length ran into when my son was going to be home on leave fom the military from overseas. The other time I was called the day before and all the cases had settled out of court.
I have always found them to be fair if you had a legitmate reason that you could not serve.

 

[Pilot]

I've been called 3 times, the third time was last month.

In our county, you get a notification by letter which explains the system. If you have a conflict, you tell them you can't make it & propose a different time; any time within a year. If you don't feel you qualify or can't serve, you tell them why. I had surgery scheduled & asked for a different time & got what I asked for. They pay $10 a day plus mileage & you have to pay to park; about $4 per day. This being Oregon, they expect you to take the bus, which doesn't work for anyone in a rural area. They get away with the $10 per day because it is like the draft; as soon as we went to an all volunteer military, the pay went up. If they couldn't compel you to serve, they would pay decently.

Here, you are subject to being called for just one week; of course if you are selected for a jury & the case goes longer, you sit on the jury until it ends. You are assigned a jury number; you call each evening & if your number is called, you go in the next day. Hint: The second time I got called for jury duty was during the holidays & my number never came up; I suspect there were no trials between Christmas & New Years. So if you can reschedule & don't want to serve, pick a week with a major holiday.

The first jury call was in '85. I was interviewed for a civil case involving a he-said she-said situation. A guy on a motorcycle with no helmet got head injuries when either he or a woman in a car changed lanes & they hit. No witnesses--who you gonna believe? When they asked me during the interview if there was anything they should know, I said I had strong feelings about helmet laws, but I didn't say which way I felt. I was rejected by one side or the other. I was later selected for a drunk driving case & we convicted the idiot.

This latest time I went in for one day and by noon they had settled & we were sent home. Since I got called in for one day, they said I had fulfilled my obligation & I was done. Cashed my $18 check last week.

I also believe jury duty is an obligation of citizenship. It's one of the things that makes this a great country. There's no free lunch!

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

I get summoned at least once a year. I generally opt out because of caring for DD. I likely could go but if one lasted a couple of weeks that could get to be a real problem. Also I really don't want to have to judge if someone is guilty or not.

My husband served on one, and he liked doing so he said we need too. My son got a summons about 3 months ago and just got another. He lives in S Korea so kind of hard for him to serve, seems like they haven't figured that out yet. He has been called again to but was out of the country. We must have a short list in this county.

 

[Bird]

Dallas County used to issue all jury summons to start on Monday to last all week, so when you got one, you showed up on Monday morning, and if you were smart, you brought along a good book, because you might be sitting there all day every day for 5 days and never even get sent to a courtroom. But you had to show up every morning for that week. They had enough complaints that they finally decided "one day or one trial". In other words, you had to show up on one day, if picked for a jury you stayed for that trial whatever time that took, but otherwise you were finished after that one day.

Denton County did what apparently has been described by others in this thread. The summons was for a week, starting on Monday morning, but when you showed up Monday, you were given a letter with a number and instructions. If you weren't sent to a courtroom that morning, you were excused and had to call a recording after 5 p.m. each day for the rest of the week to see if your number was told to report the next morning.

 

[Cat_Driver]

...No one should have to take such a financial hit due to jury duty that it damages their credit. If I ended up being sequestered for 5 weeks, who is going to pay my mortgage, car note, utilities, food and health insurance?

How is my employer going to stay in business without replacing me?

Since I have been replaced at my job, where am I going to work after jury duty?

I have no problem serving on a jury, but my family and my lifestyle should not suffer (possibly irreparable damage to my credit) for jury duty. The system is broken. Would I ever have a "jury of my peers" sit for a trial? No. I am white, male, educated to the graduate level, make very good money. What is considered my peers?

Ron

EXACTLY.

There has to be some consideration for a true hardship.
I mean really if it's going to go 5 weeks then ONLY call retired people, that's a no brainer.

To ask people who are sole owners of a business that can't go weeks without making money is unconscionable and ludicrous.

Ya, I get the civic duty thing but for a judge to curtly paint the entire population with the same NO EXCUSE brush, is truly un-American while people genuinely will lose their livelihood. Yes I also get that the few who abused the system ruined it for all.

I was a witness where a guy pulled a gun on me while I was on the freeway for no reason at all. They called me twice so I drove the two hours, payed the parking, waited in long lines to get in the court house, had to throw away my best pocket knife as it wasn't allowed in the building, and each time when I arrived they said ...err, ahhhh oh didn't they tell you, it's been changed to this or that date.

Well that was the last time I showed up, if the guy got off, so be it, but I had enough of my life being jerked around.

 

[dooleysm]

I would actually like to get called. I think it would be an interesting experience and my work situation would allow me to miss a few days with no problem. In thinking about it though, I live in a pretty rural county, so maybe there just aren't many jury trials here? Seems odd that I've never been called. Or do you get called for a district court? Even if that's the case, southwest Indiana is pretty lightly populated in general, so again, maybe there's just not alot of need for juries?

 

[Mike Costello]

EXACTLY.

There has to be some consideration for a true hardship.
I mean really if it's going to go 5 weeks then ONLY call retired people, that's a no brainer.

To ask people who are sole owners of a business that can't go weeks without making money is unconscionable and ludicrous.

Ya, I get the civic duty thing but for a judge to curtly paint the entire population with the same NO EXCUSE brush, is truly un-American while people genuinely will lose their livelihood. Yes I also get that the few who abused the system ruined it for all.

I was a witness where a guy pulled a gun on me while I was on the freeway for no reason at all. They called me twice so I drove the two hours, payed the parking, waited in long lines to get in the court house, had to throw away my best pocket knife as it wasn't allowed in the building, and each time when I arrived they said ...err, ahhhh oh didn't they tell you, it's been changed to this or that date.

Well that was the last time I showed up, if the guy got off, so be it, but I had enough of my life being jerked around.

I know exactly how you feel. Some thieves broke into my business and stole 4 tires and some misc. equipment. My alarm system went off and the cops caught them on the spot with all the stuff they had lifted. They had used a young kid to crawl through a narrow window they had broken.
And what happened after all this? I wound up being summoned to court every month for over a year, only to have my case continued each time. The defense attorneys created one delay after another to the point that everyone involved (cops included) had been reassigned or moved away. The judge wound up dropping the charges against the adult thieves and the kid got two weeks of picking up trash at the county park. My merchandise and equipment was tied up for over a year as evidence and it took an act of congress to get it released. The judges comment: "Just count yourself lucky you got your stuff back". Oh yeah, It cost me $30.00 to replace the broken window.
I quit calling the cops after that and took care of the problems myself. Curbside justice! It didn't take long for word to get out that any troublemakers were likely to have a shotgun shoved up their rear end, so they moved on to easier pickens. Mike.

 

[Bird]

I know exactly how you feel. Some thieves broke into my business and stole 4 tires and some misc. equipment. My alarm system went off and the cops caught them on the spot with all the stuff they had lifted. They had used a young kid to crawl through a narrow window they had broken.
And what happened after all this? I wound up being summoned to court every month for over a year, only to have my case continued each time. The defense attorneys created one delay after another to the point that everyone involved (cops included) had been reassigned or moved away. The judge wound up dropping the charges against the adult thieves and the kid got two weeks of picking up trash at the county park. My merchandise and equipment was tied up for over a year as evidence and it took an act of congress to get it released. The judges comment: "Just count yourself lucky you got your stuff back". Oh yeah, It cost me $30.00 to replace the broken window.
I quit calling the cops after that and took care of the problems myself. Curbside justice! It didn't take long for word to get out that any troublemakers were likely to have a shotgun shoved up their rear end, so they moved on to easier pickens. Mike.

Yep, Mike, and the police officers get just as frustrated as you did. I actually testified in criminal trials very, very rarely, but I got summoned to the courthouse many, many times only to have a case postponed again, or occasionally a defense attorney will wait to see if the prosecution witnesses all show up and if they do, plead out. When I got called to the courthouse as a witness, I knew there was less than a 5% chance of actually going to trial and testifying.

 

[mjarrels]

According to my mom, I was called one time for jury duty but I was on a Navy ship in the Indian Ocean at the time... never called again.

mark

 

[Western]

Yep, Mike, and the police officers get just as frustrated as you did. I actually testified in criminal trials very, very rarely, but I got summoned to the courthouse many, many times only to have a case postponed again, or occasionally a defense attorney will wait to see if the prosecution witnesses all show up and if they do, plead out. When I got called to the courthouse as a witness, I knew there was less than a 5% chance of actually going to trial and testifying.

Bird, you are sooo right on that one.
I think allot of it has to do with the case, starting with the officers report and the PA's presentation.