I served on a grand jury every day for a full month last year and enjoyed it. Of course, I was still getting paid my normal salary. It would have been completely horrible if I had to forgo my whole salary for a full month! Jury duty only pays $30 per day! And there were no free lunches or coffee. Plus it was easy enough for me to get to, and since I work from noon-8pm I actually only missed 1 hour of work per day. (Jury duty was 10am-1pm.)
I’ve served as a juror four times, and each time was unique. I have to say that I learned something about the US / Pennsylvania trial system each time. (Maybe not something I was all that happy to find out, but I learned something nevertheless.) I will be happy to serve again.
Perhaps the most frustrating time was when I was an alternate juror (number 14 of 12), and neither of the alternate jurors got to participate in the decision process. AARRGGHH!!!
I really liked it. The courthouse was closer to my house than work. I was still paid full wages and parking was plentiful and free. The case was interesting and I like to feel that we reached the right verdict and positively changed the defendant’s life.
I don’t know that I would like to do it now. I’ve moved and I think the courthouses are not convenient, nor have free, plentiful parking. If I knew that it wouldn’t conflict with my schedule and it didn’t cost me money to serve, I’d volunteer again if they allowed it.
I’ve been summoned to the downtown Criminal Courts Building in L.A. a few times, and actually served on a jury once. It was rather interesting although the case was a fairly mundane and low-level felony. As for lunch, it wasn’t free but they gave us long breaks for it and there are a number of good places in the area. I usually headed over to Olvera Street for some Mexican food.
I’m on the other side of the fence, but if the OP permits, I’ll give my two cents on why, and hopefully give y’all a better understanding of why some people don’t like it. I’m just running off the last sentence:
Firstly, some of this may just have to do with where I live, but the money they pay is pathetic. I think one judge explained it as a calculation based on how far you are from the court, but it ended up being about $15. Hardly enough to cover the gas involved in traveling there.
Secondly, and much more importantly to me, is that I just don’t believe in that civic duty argument. I find mandatory jury duty to be akin to a version of the draft - you’re obliged to perform a certain duty, no matter how inconvenient or downright damaging it may be for you. Granted, you don’t get shot at in a jury, but you don’t get shot at in logistics either. If they need people on a jury, they can throw your arguments about hardship out the window, because they don’t feel it’s relevant or severe enough to prevent you from serving. For example, a person whose job doesn’t cover jury service (or at least not at your full wage), and needs that money to pay for gas in their car / spouse’s car / drive the kids to school. If you can’t drive there, they can tell you to take the bus. Or, and I’ve actually heard this, ask if you have any friends who can give you a ride to and from the courthouse for the length of the trial. All instead of just making jury service more attractive / less obtrusive for the general population.
And to fulfill my civic obligation, I’m much more open to volunteering in a soup kitchen, perform volunteer work at the local police station / firehouse / hospital / homeless shelter, or any number of other lines of work than jury service that make people’s lives better or easier. I’m not a lawyer, and I don’t believe I should be qualified to make judgement calls based on an incomplete understanding, even with the judge’s crash course, before or after trial, on Law. If I were in the defendant’s shoes, I’d want someone who understood the law as it’s applied and in its own context deciding if I’m guilty, not a jury susceptible to emotional arguments (see: Disheavel’s anecdote). I very firmly believe justice should be blind, and I think the juror system kind of defeats that purpose, because people aren’t.
Anyway, if the OP isn’t interested in this kind of input, I can understand. Just let me know and I can see about getting a mod to get rid of it, or something. 
Oh, let me count the ways…
Which for me means not getting paid that day. The lousy $17 that that county throws at me does NOT make up for potentially losing $200+ (and that assumes I’m only there for a day).
The one time I did do jury duty, I did bring a book but as much as I really liked that book, I was climbing the walls by hour 3. I need to do something productive at some point in the day.
I’ve only recently obtained a laptop, so I have no idea if there’s wifi in the jury holding rooms these days. And I find laptops heavy and bothersome to carry and extremely uncomfortable to work on, anyway. I doubt I could get any work done in any case, never knowing if or when I’d have to drop everything to go to court.
Which would likely exacerbate the aforementioned lack of PTO – how long is this trial gonna last? How much money am I losing by being there? I barely make rent as it is… if one day wrecks me (and it would), just imagine what a week, or a month, would do.
I’m also not one who enjoys watching or hearing about People Behaving Badly.
You’re lucky then. We were on our own for lunch. In fact, I think we weren’t even allowed to leave, and all they had in the building were vending machines. I brown bagged it.
To top all that off, I’m more than annoyed that I get called up every two years without fail. There are millions of other people in this county, call one of them for once? Thankfully “financial hardship” is a legit reason to ask to be excused, so I’ve only actually served once, and never saw the inside of a courtroom.
I’ve always wanted to be on a jury but have never been called.
For those of you that have served, would you say the juries took their job seriously and tried to follow the rules?
StG
Yes, very much. But it looks like we made the wrong decision, as the offender who we released offended again and was sent back in jail.
Word. I loved it in the past, and would probably still enjoy the day. I never, or rarely, get a chance to just sit around and read a book these days. Heck even a couple of hours would be nice! I would still get paid at work (for a certain number of days, although I’d have to look up the exact benefit) and I love a change of scenery every so often, just to break out of the boringly repetitive every day grind. Of course, the times I’ve been called, I either only sat around for several hours and then got sent home or only had to serve one or two days. I wouldn’t be so excited to get stuck for weeks on a murder trial or something like that.
The only time I was ever selected it was as an alternate - but yes, I enjoyed participating in and observing the process.
I wish jury commissioners could develop a system that could let us indicate that we could serve on a 2-3 case, but not a 4 week one. I’d happily volunteer for 2-3 days once a year. Should I be afforded the chance to retire I’d volunteer for longer stints.
I would welcome the opportunity to serve on a jury - it would be a fascinating exercise.
Unfortunately, this is unlikely to ever happen. I have an advanced degree in mathematics, I am a former employee of a US intelligence service, I am politically conservative, and I am married to a cop. No defense attorney worth his salt would let me within a mile of his jury.
I’ve been called 3 times but only sat for one trial. I’m not crazy about it, but I do believe it’s my civic duty, so I go.
The trial I sat on: A construction worker was suing the contractor for injuries sustained supposedly by tripping over unmarked exposed electrical conduit. It took a week. On the last day the contractor’s lawyer introduced the accident report filled out and signed by the worker. It said nothing about unmarked conduit, so there was no basis for the lawsuit and we found for the contractor. A waste of everybody’s time, basically.
As for the “free” lunch, it it NOT free. It’s paid by the taxpayers (which includes me and you), and that after the government bureaucrats get their cut for routing the money.
I was picked for grand jury duty - twice. We heard evidence and voted whether to send a miscreant to trial. The first time was just so fascinating and interesting, we heard several cases ranging from a marijuana theft among low-lifes, a shifty used car salesman ripping someone off, a transvestite hooker robbing a john, a health aide ripping off the bank account of a feisty senior citizen, and finally, heard the case being made against a child killer. We heard evidence that had us in tears and sent to trial a monster from hell who is, I hope, still behind bars today. It was so emotionally draining, but we all grew very close, like survivors, for those weeks, and the DA took us all out to dinner when it was over. And we got framed thank-you certificates signed by all the city bigwigs! I was at the courthouse for weeks, sometimes I would be able to run back to the office now and then and be able to do a little work (during the first, long stint)… But my second grand jury duty a few years later was shorter, and the cases we heard were more mundane. My employer was rather ticked off when I advised I was selected for a second go-round.
No free lunch, we were on our own. I felt I had to go check in every day and see if the place I worked was still running in my absence.
I’ve been on one real jury, though it was a fairly minor criminal case, and I enjoyed it. It was an easy drive from my house, with a big free parking lot, so that was not stressful. We only worked mornings so I could go to work in the afternoon. And I got to be foreman.
The other case where I was officially on a jury was a civil case, and got settled as soon as we were sworn in.
I did not like sitting around and not getting picked, but now you get a number and can call in to see if you have to go, so if you actually have to go to the courthouse you have a pretty good chance of being seated.
I am 57 yo and have only been called once for jury duty. sadly, I was to report to the courthouse THE DAY BEFORE I LEFT FOR A CRUISE! Once in my life and it has to be this week?
fortunately for me, there was a number to call the night before to see if you were needed and I was not. never had to go and try to figure out a way to not serve. can they make you cancel a cruise to serve?
I have often thought that working at the polls should be a substitute for jury duty. It would avoid mostly old folks who don’t know much about computers being the only ones at the polls when trying to vote.
You get a call to serve. Do you want jury duty or working at the polls? your choice. OR maybe cleaning up the highway? clearing weeds that are interfering with sidewalks?
civic duty. I’d serve now that I am not scheduled for any vacations for a long long time. I also live on disability. I could do a day or so of jury duty and the gov is already paying me so they might as well get something out of me. I’d serve.
At my local courthouses they specifically bar you from taking laptops. They also jump on anyone who pulls their cellphones out, especially when actually in court. Afraid of people taking pictures of the judge / attorneys / jurors.
Usually not. They defer your service to a later date, some time after your cruise returns. Deferred service means you didn’t actually serve and can be called up again within a year, unlike actually serving, which puts at least a year between your next call.
Although I enjoyed the process, my two gripes were not being paid by my work, and driving downtown and paying to park (I don’t work downtown and don’t go there on my own for any reason.)
Yeah, that’s where I had jury duty (the one time I actually served). Even in broad daylight I was uncomfortable walking around by myself outside. Also, it’s in the middle of effin’ nowhere and took like an hour and a half to get there on the bus (no El down there).
I served on a Federal jury, in a case that involved several people conspiring to (and succeeding in) stealing several million dollars. Due to lack of evidence we finally had to find them not guilty, but it took 3 days of deliberations and some jurors, including me, cried or were visibly upset during the process. I felt the defendants were guilty, but the evidence just wasn’t there. I truly felt I had let the victims of the theft down by not being able to give them justice. That’s the part I didn’t like.
The 2 hour commute to the courthouse wasn’t fun either, though I was paid mileage and parking fees were reimbursed. No free lunch during the trial but we did get free soft drinks and bottled water. Once we started deliberations, we got a free lunch and had to eat together as a group with our bailiffs chaperoning us.
I think I’d be fine with jury duty and the courthouse is only 5 minutes from my house, but I can’t afford all that time off work. No work = no pay.