Jury Duty

I fucking hate jury duty.

I lucked out with my last one. I got it in 2019, but was allowed to reschedule it online up to 12 months from the original date selected. I randomly chose October 2020, and Rona hit. They canceled all court cases. lol
 
I just ignore the letters. Nothing ever happened, and yeah, I've been pulled over for traffic stuff.
 
I've sat on several juries and the first one showed me the criminal justice system is not what I thought it was. If I ever have to have a criminal trial " knock on wood I don't ", I'm going with a judge not a jury.
 
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Try Grand Jury. Three or four days a month for 18months. Absolutely sucked. I live 3 hrs from court and had to stay in a hotel that cost more than I was given multiple times.
I will never open that letter again. It will go right into the shredder.
 
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This post gave me an "oh, shit!" moment. It reminded me that I have jury duty sometime this month. I frantically looked for the jury summons, and found that I have it this week! 😅

Here, it's for one day or one trial, and you're good for a couple of years. In practice, I've been summoned about every 5 years. I go online the night before, and see if my group is being called in. I may not even get called in, but that's never happened. I've been called in when they're putting together a jury, but never been sat on one.
 
I've been called in. I'm usually dismissed. Sat a short civil case once. I found it interested to be part of the process. I get not wanting to do it, spend the time or whatever. I don't get skipping out on it. I guess the words Civic Duty mean more to some than to others.
 
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Powdermonkey said:
Try Grand Jury. Three or four days a month for 18months. Absolutely sucked. I live 3 hrs from court and had to stay in a hotel that cost more than I was given multiple times.
I will never open that letter again. It will go right into the shredder.
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Had the same thing but not nearly as long as you. Every week for months without a way to get out of it. Federal buildings aren't in the best areas either.
 
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I've been summoned twice (in 20+years), and served each time. It's a chore but I believe it's one of our most important civic duties. Probably more important than voting in elections.

1st case was a drug dealer. Clearly guilty (and he came back high AF from lunch break) and convicted on all counts, but I regret voting to convict on the charge of "Maintaining a Drug Premises." He stored drugs and cash at his home (and they really emphasized the security cameras, oooo), but that's where he lived with his girlfriend and young child. The women on the jury took greater offense at this that his dealing in general and pushed to convict on this charge. But I now believe this was prosecutorial overreach and I should have refused to convict on this count.

2nd case was a renter of a furnished house who cleaned out the place when evicted. Guilty, and it was awkward seeing her work checkout at the grocery store later. I turned and chose a different checker lol
 
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I’ve been on two juries, one case lasted 3 months much of the evidence on hours of video tape the case about a process for making microscopic circuits for the government using special photo chemical agents, the other case was a slip and fall in a restroom in a k-mart. I was surprised on both of those they put (kept) me on the juries especially the slip and fall at the department store as I’ve been on those types of calls many times in the fire department…big mistake. On both I acted as the jury foreperson and both cases resulted in the plaintiff getting $00.00 dollars.

Just after buying my new home in Nevada I got a jury summons from Santa Clara county in California, they gave me a hard time on the phone when I called to let them know I was no longer a resident of the state, but they weren’t done with it a couple weeks later a jury summons showed up in my mail box from Clark county in Nevada the SOB’s in my old county made a call to my new county, I’d been a resident of my new state for about a month and had to report for jury duty there.
 
1515art said:
I’ve been on two juries, one case lasted 3 months much of the evidence on hours of video tape the case about a process for making microscopic circuits for the government using special photo chemical agents, the other case was a slip and fall in a restroom in a k-mart. I was surprised on both of those they put (kept) me on the juries especially the slip and fall at the department store as I’ve been on those types of calls many times in the fire department…big mistake. On both I acted as the jury foreperson and both cases resulted in the plaintiff getting $00.00 dollars.

Just after buying my new home in Nevada I got a jury summons from Santa Clara county in California, they gave me a hard time on the phone when I called to let them know I was no longer a resident of the state, but they weren’t done with it a couple weeks later a jury summons showed up in my mail box from Clark county in Nevada the SOB’s in my old county made a call to my new county, I’d been a resident of my new state for about a month and had to report for jury duty there.
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My wife and I both got jury summons every 2 years when we lived in California. And, sure enough, six weeks before my scheduled departure date, I got a summons! I filled out the "please excuse me because..." form, told them I was outta here, but to feel free to contact Brevard county, Fl - I'd gladly serve on one there. Have yet to be summoned here, although my wife has been. Goddess help you if you get a lawyer on the jury like she did!
 
I've been called 7 or 8 times since we moved to TX. Unless you are selected for a jury, it's a one day event, just sitting around doing nothing. Have to fill in a pre-selection questionnaire —
1. Own our home. 2. Post graduate degree. 3. Not on welfare. 4. Own our vehicles. 5. USN Veteran.
In 30 years, I've been selected once, for a murder trial, but the defendant died before it came to trial.
You are correct about the lawyers trying to select the emotionally "swayable". They don't want facts to settle the case, they want feelings!
 
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Fishtaco said:
Anyone else done much Jury duty? I get Summonsed like clockwork every 5 years! $800 fine if I don't attend the 4 days for selection, you cant get out of it with a work letter anymore unless you are "official" essential services.

All my friends and family have never been summonsed for jury duty (I think in US its called a subpoena?) Not sure why they keep calling me? I am argumentative and I don't even trust myself lol.

The problem with Jurors is in my experience at least a third of them always believe the Defendant "must be guilty" because they were arrested in the first instance so their mind is made up before the court is in session! I have argued with jury members who say well they are guilty of something so they may as well be found guilty of these charges! prosecution and defence can only "Challenge" 4 attendees each during the in court selection prosses.

Its like a line of school children being led in and out of courtrooms by a sheriff from 8am to 11.30 am until you get selected or sent home till the next day :(
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That's because you show up is why you keep getting selected instead of throwing it in the trash like most.
If it's not sent registered mail, signature receipt there's no way to prove you ever received the summons?
Think about it.
 
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I was an alternate on a drunk driving case once. And then got rudely awakened by a loud bang from the bench.
I had to explain that I just got off an overnight snow plowing shift in a motor grader and that I should have been at home sleeping.
The Judge let me stand in the corner until another alternate was seated. Got out to the parking lot and fell asleep
in the truck.
 
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Just joking… I’ve been called in once but they ended the case with a bargain plea before it went to trial, something about a person fraudulently practicing medicine and giving out pain med scripts… had been caught before doing it and somehow got to do it again.
 
I haven't gotten a summons for jury duty in at least 10 years. Hopefully they think I died lol.

My wife gets them seemingly yearly. She is on jury duty this week, has to call in every day. So yesterday was the only day she had too much stuff going on. Sure enough, they wanted her to report. She went to their website and filled out a form saying she's nursing and can't attend. Said it was one of the few reasons, no way to contact anyone. As a result, they're going to have her do jury duty another week.

I told her she keeps getting summoned because she is one of the few that actually responds.
 
Tray Burge said:
That's because you show up is why you keep getting selected instead of throwing it in the trash like most.
If it's not sent registered mail, signature receipt there's no way to prove you ever received the summons?
Think about it.
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Yeah, but remember he's Down Under. They come arrest you for it now...

australia-being-a-penal-colony-boomerang-2021.jpg
 
suicideking said:
I told her she keeps getting summoned because she is one of the few that actually responds.
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You are often permanently taken off the list if you don't respond. California doesn't waste time on this, we have enough people that serve so it's not a big deal. Generally if you don't sign a summons it isn't valid, that's kinda the whole point of getting served. Starship Troopers is one of my favorites, "service guarantees citizenship." We need some of that.
 
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Summoned once, for the week of my university final exams, so the head of my college (an ex lawyer) got me excused. 30 years on I’ve never been summoned since and I’d quite like to do it one day!
 
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