In California, everybody used to rip up their summons…then there was a new law that made that punishible with a huge fine. Suddenly everybody started showing up, including myself.
I was sent to the Beverly Hills Court…you would think this would be posh and exciting and you would be very wrong.
Sat on the tile floor cause they didn’t have enough seats. Place was a pig sty and it stunk. Had to go there and sit for 6 hours every day and on last day, got called to be on a jury. In court half an hour, wait around three, in for anther half hour then home and back to the same nonsense the next day.
Got paid $5 per day, plus mileage.
The case was stupid and a waste of everyone’s time.
Trust me…jury duty is not all it is cracked up to be on The Practice or Law and Order.
Plus, once you went on jury duty, you got called every year…took me moving out of state to finally get away from it.
There was talk about creating a large pool of professional jurors who would get paid a monthly salary, insuance benefits and vacation pay…I’m all for it. Then I wouldn’t have to go ever again.
Los Angeles County (including Beverly Hill, for DMark’s future information) has gone to the “one day - one trial” system. You are put “on call” for one week. You call in every evening to see if your group has been called for the next day. If not, you go to work, school, whatever you’d otherwise be doing. If called, you go in the next day. (If you’re not called at all that week, you’re off until the next year).
Once you go in, you sit around until assigned to a court room. (If you’re not called to a court room, you’re out at the end of the day, see you next year).
Once called to a court room, you go to voir dire. If picked, you serve on that trial, otherwise, see you next year.
Not a bad system, especially compared to the old way, where you had to go to court every day for 10 days (or until assigned to a courtroom and not used).
Real time jury update.
Called for it this week. I had been summoned before. You get a juror number and call in the night before to find out of your number is in the range they’re calling in. Mine was 181, I thought I was in the clear based on past times. The range they called in was 1 to 500. So 500 jurors are called in and they are almost all used on Monday.
I was sort of sweating. The form asked some specific questions about certain companies. My wife had done one of those and ended up doing 3 months. (But got to sock A Major Media Company for the biggest award in state history.) Ohoh.
But all I got was a large group for an arson case. A lot of questions about GPS if your were techno (and I was). Somehow this meant I didn’t get picked. Apparently knowing about stuff is not good. Stinking lawyers.
$30 a day, but not called in since. Could use the money. But boy is it boring. Brought along Crytonomicon for entertainment.
Kinda dumb question, but do you think a nurse would get called on a medical malpractice./negligence case? Depending which side of the fence youre on, I could be great for strengthening a case with merit, or great for shooting holes in your patetic case. who gets the ultimate say in jury selection?
I served a total of three times in Los Angeles County, although the first time I was called I had to go downtown for five days just to sit around and do crossword puzzles. My second service was at a different courthouse in L.A. and this time I was picked for a jury in a criminal case. It was interesting, but disappointing, because most of us on the jury didn’t think the defendant should have been charged at all. Nevertheless, under the law we had to find the defendant guilty on the least of the charges. If the judge had asked the jury, we would have asked him unanimously to suspend the sentence. But he didn’t ask, and they never tell you what the sentence is. You receive the judge’s thanks for participating and are sent home.
My last service was in Pasadena Superior Court. I was selected for two juries, one a civil case, the other criminal. Both of those cases were completed to the juries’ satisfaction. Overall the process is very interesting, but not nearly as dramatic as television.
I saw some lawyers in court who were what I would call top notch, and others that I’d swear had to have help dressing themselves. The latter weren’t in any case where I was accepted as a juror, I’m happy to say.
I have been summoned three times in the four and a half years I’ve been is San Bernardino County, but have been excused each time because I have the full-time responsibility for an aged (94) relative who can’t be left alone. I would be glad to serve again someday when I can though.