Explain this form of (MA) jury duty to me

[tdn]

Massachusetts has a great form of jury duty. It's a one day/one trial thing. If you get called, but not empanelled, you go home and can't get called again for three years. If you get empanelled, you serve for the duration of the trial, then you go home and can't get called again for three years.

Yesterday a friend was telling me about his jury duty. I can't remember if he said it was supreme court or superior court. He said that he's been serving for well over a month, and it started out as three days a week, but now they're down to one or two days a week. When I asked him what the trial was about, he said he couldn't discuss it, but the current one was a murder trial. The current one? He said that it was one of many trials that he's been involved with.

How does that work exactly? Is it the exact same jury for every trial? And how does that square with the one day/one trial rule? And how might his employer feel about that?

[runner pat]

Sounds like a grand jury.

[Motorgirl]

Yup - that's a grand jury.

Here is a little more info on MA Grand Juror service. Note you can download the handbook in Word Perfect format.

I had a friend who served every Thursday for 3 months.

[Shagnasty]

Yeah, it is a Grand Jury. I worked with a woman who got put on one in Mass. It was bad news. She had to go every Monday for some absurd length of time like a year. She was a consultant too so she lost at least 20% of her billable hours. The risk of that is almost enough to make me not register to vote.

[ralph124c]

Hey, if you don't want to serve, getting out is easy-just show signs of intelligence.

[kayT]

Slight Hijack: I was on a Federal Grand Jury in LA; one day a week for a year. But they only kept people who were paid by their employer for "unlimited" duty; all the others either were excused or only served until they had used up the time their employers paid for. I worked for a school district which paid unlimited. It was a really interesting experience, except for the several weeks' case regarding financial matters and the IRS which was "narrated" by the most boring FBI agent ever born. I'd do it again in a minute. (And my employer made out ok as I did all my work in 4 days a week, actually.)

[mcgato]

Originally Posted by ralph124c

Hey, if you don't want to serve, getting out is easy-just show signs of intelligence.

As cute as that sounds, it isn't true for grand jury. I served in New Jersey last fall. I came in one day a week for about 9 weeks. The selection went something like:
--line up according to the number on the form that they sent you
--the first 21 are called
--the judge asks if anyone has a valid reason to be dismissed. It had better be a really good reason. Even with a good reason, the person usually has to serve at a later time or on a petit jury. The excused juror is replaced with the next person in line.
--once they have 21 people that can serve, that is the grand jury. No questions asked.

During the time that I served, there were five panels hearing cases. My group heard assault, drug, robbery, and other cases of that type. Other panels got to hear more serious cases like murder and rape. It was fairly interesting for the most part. And I got $5 a day for serving!

[Mdcastle]

I think they pull names from other databases too other than voter registration. I've never been registered to vote but I got called for jury service.

[hajario]

Originally Posted by kayT

Slight Hijack: I was on a Federal Grand Jury in LA; one day a week for a year. But they only kept people who were paid by their employer for "unlimited" duty; all the others either were excused or only served until they had used up the time their employers paid for. I worked for a school district which paid unlimited. It was a really interesting experience, except for the several weeks' case regarding financial matters and the IRS which was "narrated" by the most boring FBI agent ever born. I'd do it again in a minute. (And my employer made out ok as I did all my work in 4 days a week, actually.)

That happened to a friend of mine. Unfortunately, it's a 100 mile dive from Santa Barbara to LA. It was quite a burden but he did say that it was fascinating. I was summonsed for Federal jury duty once but thank goodness I had done regular jury duty within the previous year so I was excused.

[kayT]

Originally Posted by hajario

That happened to a friend of mine. Unfortunately, it's a 100 mile dive from Santa Barbara to LA. It was quite a burden but he did say that it was fascinating. I was summonsed for Federal jury duty once but thank goodness I had done regular jury duty within the previous year so I was excused.

Well, yeah, but he got paid a whole $.35 per mile for that trip! Lavish, no?

[kunilou]

Originally Posted by Motorgirl

Note you can download the handbook in Word Perfect format.

I don't want to hijack the thread, but isn't (or wasn't) Word Perfect actually prefered in the legal community? Maybe something about formatting options?