I’ve only been called to jury duty once in my life (and same with my wife). Juries seem to be far rarer in Canada - I don’t personally know anyone who has mentioned serving on a jury. I’m retired, so now it would be no hardship. However, for both of use, we were notified a few months in advance, then the duty call was cancelled a week or two before the date. The only hardship was the disruption of not being able to plan any trips, vacation, etc. for the possible month or more of trial, even if there was a good chance of not being picked. (Since we have no children, we tended to get vacation and do travelling outside of the summer months when everyone else wanted vacation).
I used to work for a large corporation, and they did pay workers who were on jury duty - it was even written into the union contract. I don’t recall hearing of anyone ever having to collect.
I had recently been severed from a long term corporate job and started by own consulting business when I was called for jury duty. I pleaded with the jury official that the only income I had was the hourly fee I got from my new consulting business, but he was not swayed. I was still required to show up for my two week jury stint, but fortunately I was not called for a trial and got released early most days.
Mrs. FtG served on a long civil trial. The juror pay is a joke. She had a great employer who provided okay income during the trial. Since the trial didn’t go every day, she also got regular pay on the days she actually worked. BTW, they returned the largest verdict in the state at the time.
As I’ve said in other threads, my Mom was a court reporter. She worked the upper-level trial courts in her county. Each courtroom was served by a fixed crew of judge, clerk, reporter, and primary bailiff. With additional bailiffs added if security was an issue. Each judge rotated between criminal and civil matters every year or two, and so his (always a “his” back then) crew got the same rotation.
Mom spent a lot of years reporting complex civil litigation that ran to multiple months. She often commented on the poor jurors forced into whatever legally complex and fact-intense area the trial was about for far longer than they could reasonably be expected to put their lives on total hold.
Her judge was a pompous flamer in the old school mold, even by 1960s/70s standards; their trial experience can’t have been a high point for any of the many, many jurors put through that wringer.
When I worked for a nation-wise banking/finance company, I was called as a witness in a court hearing. I notified my boss that I would be out for that morning at least, and possibly more – he mentioned that he thought the company policy on ‘jury duty’ also paid if you were subpoenaed as a witness. He checked it out, and they did.
But the hearing only lasted part of a day, and the court paid me just a pro-rated part of their (low) daily reimbursement. When I went to turn that check over to the company, my boss said accounting would spend more cashing & recording it than it was worth. So told me to keep it. I bought coffee for the rest of our team that afternoon.
I just got a summons for a US court, and if I have to go in I get $50 a day and mileage, with payment of tolls added. Since I have a Senior Clipper Card for BART that gives me 2/3 off I might make out like a bandit.
Strictly speaking, though, the government isn’t really “subsidizing” business - the business is suffering from the lack of an employee (you.) I know, yeah, letter of the law, but it’s not like the employer is really gaining from your absence.
According to this site, there are eight states (as well as DC) that legally mandate that employers continue to pay employees who are serving on jury duty. Many of them cap how much money the employer is required to pay, though, or for how long.
Alabama: regular wages, no time limit
Colorado: regular wages, capped at $50/day, first 3 days only
Connecticut: regular wages, first 5 days only
District of Columbia: regular wages, first 5 days only
Louisiana: regular wages, first day only
Massachusetts: regular wages, first 3 days only, employer can get hardship exemption
Nebraska: regular wages, no time limit
New York: regular wages, capped at $40/day, first 3 days only, applies only to companies with over 10 employees
Tennessee: regular wages, applies only to companies with 5 or more employees, does not apply to temporary employees with the company for less than 6 months
The Georgia Attorney General has also apparently issued an official opinion saying that employees could an employer for lost wages during jury duty. But this isn’t officially coded in law and I don’t know if it’s ever been tested.
Agree that the employer is losing the use of the employee. Which is a 100% loss to them. If the employer is also paying the worker (approximately) their normal wages, that’s a double loss to the employer.
Here’s what I meant:
If the State pays jury pay to the juror as (inadequate) compensation for their services, and the juror is required to hand the money over to their employer either in cash or as a matching reduction in their pay, the net effect is the juror gets zero and the State is paying the employer $30 to borrow the worker for a day.
The State is not interested in paying the employer; it’s interested in paying the juror / worker. So as the law is written here, if the juror pay would flow through the juror / worker to the employer, the state says “Tough shit; none for you Mr. Greedy Employer. We intend that money for the juror and if you’re just going to steal it from them we’re not going to help you do that.”
Wow a whole $5 per hour for three days! So generous! I don’t see how they can even use the term “regular wages” when the cap is so egregiously under.
I was very lucky the one time I had to serve on a grand jury for an entire month that I had the option of choosing a morning time slot. So I was at jury duty 4 hours every morning M-F 9-1 and then able to work close to my regular office hours 12-8 (getting in a little late each day and sometimes staying later at night.)
I remember my grandparents telling me that during the Depression a whole lot of unemployed people wanted to get selected for jury duty because it meant some form of income if only for a week or so.
This was my story as well. I was on a jury for a six-week trial which had not been expected to last that long. I’d planned out my workload for four weeks and was able to juggle things pretty well going into the office one day a week and managing other things evenings and weekends. But as the trial dragged on into its second month things started to get out of hand at work. Negative repercussions mounted and though I didn’t leave that job for another six years, that trial was a huge boulder in the road.
My company paid me for the duration, though, and also let me keep the $12/day I got from the state. Whee.
If the state is paying the juror, say, $10 a day and the employer is willing to pay the employee full pay minus what they get in jury duty pay, then essentially when the juror gets full pay and fowards his state jury pay to the employers, the state is essentially splitting the bill with the employer. Either (a) the policy was established back when jury duty pay was considered fairly high (as recently as 1960’s minimum wage would be around $1/hr) or (b) the state just sees an opportunity to stick it to generous employers, saving a whole $10.
What they’re paying works out to no more than 90 mins of work, maybe less, depending upon your local jurisdiction’s min wage laws. How can they get away with paying such a pittance? Can a juror get up & walk out after 90 mins? Can a juror bring a wage case against the court / would it have a chance of going anywhere?
It’s a stipend, not an hourly amount. You aren’t being paid for your service, it’s a small amount of money intended to cover some expenses while performing work for free. It’s usually used for trainees and interns, or any volunteer work. But sometimes the term is used when a fixed amount covers expenses for paid employees.
'Zactly. Jury duty is a “right and privilege” of citizenship, not a job.
The stipend just means you probably won’t be out of pocket for gasoline to drive there and back, and might get (some of) your lunch covered too. But it probably won’t even cover the full IRS mileage rate for your car each day.
As with all things governmental, there is no “invisible hand” making sure the resources available are sufficient to the need. Your state pays what it pays because of whatever accidents of history led to the particular amount stated in the enabling legislation whenever it was last revised. There is no deeper logic than that. Nor need there be.
From my experience being on a jury or almost being on a jury the court met three days a week to do trial stuff (my last one would have been Monday, Thursday, Friday) and not necessarily every one of those days or the entire day. Once we started to deliberate, we were told we could set whatever schedule we wanted. We started a little late one day to accommodate one of the jurors.
