US District Court Juror Questionaire is aggressive, invasive, & irrelevant.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Yesterday I received a juror summons. It came in a packet of about 20 pages. In the packet is a questionnaire. I expected the equivalent of a political Myers-Brigg personalilty test, which I would have happily answered. I thought I’d get questions like, “Is it wrong to steal to feed your family?” or “Are there circumstances where you would convict a person of manslaughter if they failed to yield right of way causing an accident while speeding to a hospital?” What is included are questions that pry and make me feel as if I’m on trial.

So, under penalty of perjury, I am supposed to answer the best of my knowledge the following questions.

(In no particular order)

77) What websites do you regularly visit?
On a six inch line I’m supposed to tell you what websites I regularly visit? Well it doesn’t ask for “all websites”. So I can get by with a news site and a search engine. That seems less than honest. Maybe I should put the types of websites,hmmm: porn, sdmb, news, search engines, retail. No that doesn’t seem right either.

80) Do you have a cell phone? If yes, how often do you use it?
This one has a 4 inch response line, maybe. I really don’t see how I can answer this without sounding coy. “When I get a call or when I make a call?”

73) Are there any bumper stickers on the car that you or your spouse drive? If yes what do they say?
Same old six inch line for response. Fortunately, I don’t have any so this question doesn’t apply to me.

74) Do you have a personalized license plate? If yes, what is it and what does it mean.

56) Have you or any member of your family ever filed for bankruptcy? If yes, please: Describe type of bankruptcy:___________ Give outcome:_________________
OK. So the response lines are a wee bit longer than that; but, exactly how am I going to know this? I have a large family. The question doesn’t qualify with “immediate family” which would make it a bit easier. My brother filed for bankruptcy. The outcome? Well, he’s alive and well. What other outcome is there? He’s on the street eating out of trash cans?

9) Are you taking any medications which by law must be prescribed by a physician? If yes, describe:
They give you two lines for this. I’m not on meds.

**Have:
any family member ever had drug or alcohol problem?
you received veteran’s, SS, welfare, AFDC, unemployment, education grant, etc. benefits?
you lived outside of this geographic area (list of states included)? if yes, where and when?

List each siblings age, occupation, place of employment, city of residence.

List any hobbies, spare-time activities, outside interests:**

I estimate that a third of the 88 questions are none of their business. And who but the judicial system says that you must complete and return a form within 5 days? So, it’s OK for them to drag around for months or years but they are so incompetent at planning that they can’t give a juror a more reasonable amount of time to respond. I think the minimal response times for most other businesses is 15 days. To multiple choice question, “what is your opinion of the judicial system”, I am tempted to check “dislike and distrust” thanks to this silly questionnaire— that’s down from the still less than stellar “somewhat respect” I would have chosen. I don’t know. I don’t have much time to think about it. I definitely acknowledge that those assholes have all the authority. I definitely acknowledge that they can majorly screw with my life. I suppose that is a form of respect. You can’t fight city hall.

2

The questions are presumably geared to find out if you have bias in hopes that you don’t pre-judge a case. Ironically, you’ve already determined the questions are irrelevant.

3

I understand that the questions are supposed to be determining if I have a bias. My point is that hypothetical questions should be able to determine that bias without invading my privacy. I am signing my name attesting to the accuracy of my answers under penalty of perjury, no less.

And yes I do think that the websites that I regularly visit should not indicate whether I am fit to be a juror.

Really? Whether someone in my family has filed for bankruptcy is relevant to my ability to be a juror? I’ll give you that whether I filed for bankruptcy MAY be relevant. Just, Just, I don’t know. Did you read the questions?

4

Just answer the questions “None of your damn business.” Maybe that will make them leave you alone.

5

Are you certain that this isn’t a survey? They may want to get information about the jury pool, not use the questions for screening. Are you sure the questionnaire is mandatory?

6

It’s not just about your fitness, but whether or not you may have a bias towards this particular kind of case that the attorneys need to know about. Bear in mind that the attorneys don’t get to directly conduct voir dire in federal courts, so your answers may be the only chance they get to find out about your political leanings and whether or not you may be a nutjob. Hanging out here may not mean much, but they’ll definitely want to know if you hang out regularly at 911wasaninsidejob.dot.com, revengeforrubyridge.dot.org, or freetedkazscinsky.dot.net.

7

Heh, you reckon that’ll work?

It’s quite clear that I’m required to fill out the questionnaire. I quote,

“In an effort to select fair and impartial juries, your cooperation is needed in answering the following questions. The information that you provide will be used by the judge and lawyers during the impaneling of the jury. . . .
This questionnaire is only provided to attorneys and their agents who are actually involved in cases scheduled for trial. Those persons shall not disclose the information . . .”

The fact that the form is marked confidential and that the afore mentioned disclaimer is included is supposed to make me feel all rosy and peachy about the invasion of privacy—that and the underlining for emphasis, I guess.

8

From a defense or prosecutors perspective it’s all very useful info., but is this something you must answer or can choose not to answer without penalty? Requiring The names and addresses of siblings is pushing the envelope of invasiveness to the breaking point.

9

Our professional ethics forbid vexatious or harassing investigation of veniremen (“pre-jurors”). I think some of the questions are fairly supercilious and potentially violative of due process (such as “what bumper stickers are on your car and your spouse’s car?” or the command to provide dossiers on your siblings). I can easily think of questions that could potentially yield relevant information that nevertheless would be clearly beyond the pale (At what age did you lose your virginity? Have you ever committed adultery? Has your spouse ever had an affair?).

However, challenging this would involve contempt hearings and subsequent litigation (and the need to retain counsel). And it could end up badly. It certainly wouldn’t be easy.

10

There is definitely a method to the madness. Jury consultants make a lot of money trying to pick the perfect jury. A question that may seem stupid to you could be one that they glean a lot of information from.

Take the bankruptcy question. Supposed you say that your worthless piece of shit brother-in-law declared bankruptcy and he is still mooching off of your sister. That would give them an insight that you perhaps look down (or have prejudices) against people who have declared bankruptcy. And further, perhaps it will come out at trial that the defendant, or one of the witnesses is going through bankruptcy.

Same way with the website question. There is probably no better indicator of personality/views that the websites we visit.

11

I can see filling out many questions with a ‘N/A’ response. The worse they’re likely to do is return it to you with an admonishment to answer all the questions. I really doubt they’ll fire up the guns of sanction right off the bat. Much cheaper to just send it back with a form letter.

ETA: IANAL etc.

12

Wow - I had not heard of this before, and it sure would tick me off.

What does it reference in terms of your obligation and penalties?
Is this covered by local rules under 28 sec 1865?
If you don’t mind, what district is this?
I’d be curious to look at their rules.
Or do most districts do something similar?
(I do fed appellate litigation, but no jury work. Have only been called for jury duty once, at the state level.)

Personally, I would definitely be as uncooperative as possible without leaving myself open to possible sanction.
In NO WAY does this seem sufficiently narrowly tailored to serve any legitimate governmental interest.

13

To clarify, the question about the siblings ask for “age, occupation, place of employment, city of residence.” It doesn’t actually ask for name.

I would have thought that the question asking what medications you are taking would be a violation of HIPAA.

Dinsdale, it’s the Middle District of Alabama.

The penalty for not answering any of the questions?
“If you do not answer any of the questions, the court may instead individually question you during the jury selection process about matters not completed.”
The thing is I would be completely willing to truthfully answer any hypothetical question which might allow one to build a pyschological profile of me. It’s all these specific, personal questions that I object to. I will answer them to the best of my ability because it isn’t worth fighting. But take the website question, could any of you provide the complete list of websites you regularly visit on a six inch line? There’s no way that I could. There are no instructions to provide additional paper as needed. So I’m thinking they must want me to be a bit discriminating on which sites that I list.

If it were a list of hypotheticals, I could read, consider, and answer to the best of my ability. When it’s all of these really detailed personal questions, I can see how it would be possible for me to unintentionally provide a wrong answer to a question that is verifiable and get in trouble for it later. I don’t expect that. I suspect I’ll answer the questions as best as I can and everything will be fine.

But I can’t help but feel I run the risk of sounding aloof. Has any member of your family been sued? I think so. My sister and her husband have a successful small business. If yes Describe lawsuit: Give outcome: I’m pretty sure I’m only supposed to answer from my current knowledge, which would be “I don’t know”. Surely I’m not supposed to contact my sister so that I can provide more info than I currently have.

14

I served on a jury once about 20 years ago in California, and questions similar to those were asked during the jury selection process. The bumper sticker question was on it. One girl indicated that she had a license frame that said, “To know me is to love me,” and we all got a chuckle out of it.

The defense attorney laughed, turned away, and then turned back to her and asked, “What does that mean?”

She could not answer, and was somewhat embarrassed. He smiled at her nicely and said, “Don’t worry about it … you aren’t the one on trial here,” and the voir dire process continued.

When it came time to dismiss jurors, she was the first one he let go. I remember thinking at the time that he probably didn’t want someone who couldn’t form his or her own opinion.

15

Cool. I’ll pull up their local rules when I get a chance and see what is there.

If not answering simply means they may ask when and if I am called for jury duty, then I’d say send it back blank. And then when they ask I might either just have to answer to “my best recollection at the moment” or inform them of what I thought of the question.

Impresses me as far preferable to writing all of this personal information down, and sending it off where it is kept who knows where for who knows how long, to be read and further circulated by who knows whom.

16

This is the sort of questionnaire I would have to fill out uber-thoroughly and completely honestly. They want to know what websites I regularly visit? I would list everything in my Bookmarks (well, almost everything), in teeny-tiny print, going sideways and between lines of print and off onto the back of the form. My siblings all live places like “Turn left at the Ground Round and look for the house with 3 birch trees and then it’s a little ways past that, with a truck in the driveway,” and they work at “some place that makes doors for prisons.”

I would be sure to take everything very literally. For instance, since I don’t know their definition of “family,” I would have to list every theorized bankruptcy/felony/addiction problem I have ever heard of in my ancestry, once again in tiny sideways densely intermingled script. Of course, most of my dead ancestors served in the military, received some sort of government aid, or went to college. I don’t know a lot of their names, but I could provide a fair description.

I don’t have any bumper stickers, but I’m a helpful, cooperative sort, so I’d let them know about all of those state park stickers I have on my windshield and that little sticker my mechanic puts on every time he does maintenance. (Obviously, I have a lot more time on my hands than most people, but I’m happy to use it for a good cause like annoying the bejeebers out of whoever sent out this intrusive questionnaire).

I would be obligated to do these things specifically because of that “under penalty of perjury” crap. That’s just meant to intimidate you into thinking you have to provide them with more information than they actually need, and I just couldn’t let them get away with that. Even though you’re required to give them truthful answers, the amount and type of detail you provide doesn’t seem to be clearly defined.

Of course, I do have the benefit of being obviously insane. You might be better off just following Dinsdale’s advice and sending it back blank.

17

What state do you live in? They wonder why people hate jury duty, when they make it suckier all the time.

18

I got one of those more than a decade ago. I found the questions annoying and invasive, and there was no citation of any statute compelling me to answer them, so I trashed it. Nothing happened as a result. YMMV

19

Chances are they are hearing an Identity theft case. They’ll chose their jurors by who gives away the most or least information.

Give them your name and address.

20

Would it make much of difference in (good or bad) our legal system if we just empanel the first 12 people who didn’t about the case and swore they’d be impartial and didn’t ask them anthing else?