Jury Duty: Do you try to get out of it?

In My Humble Opinion
41

I’ve only made it as far as voir dire once, and I was the first juror kicked off by the prosecution. Probably for good reason; I was active in answering questions, I’m educated, and I had figured out from the voir dire questions that the prosecution didn’t have a case. Also, I used a legal term in answering a question, and the prosecutor pretended he didn’t understand it and made some joke to the other jurors. I knew at that point he had already decided he wanted me gone, since he wasn’t interested in my good opinion of him.

Yeah, your boss and like a million other people every day. And that’s the problem. Assume you’re a judge, and you handle maybe 40 trials a year, and in each trial you do voir dire with 100-200 people. After a couple of years, you’ve heard these same lame excuses from tons of people. I’ve seen judges handle jurors who make these kind of asinine comments, and it is usually a thing of beauty to watch. Suffice it to say that comments like that may not lead to the expected outcome.

And this is the smart way to handle things. First, it’s honest. delphica just answered the questions truthfully. Second, it makes the juror “an enemy” of one of the lawyers – and if a lawyer thinks a juror doesn’t like him, the lawyer wants the juror off. So much of a trial is about persuasion that a lawyer needs the jury to listen to and believe him – by correcting his grammar, the juror signals that s/he knows more than the lawyer.

I can say that while I too would like to be on a jury someday, I think it extremely unlikely I’d get selected. But I also know enough about how voir dire works and what goes into a trial that I could figure out what to say, truthfully, to ensure someone would strike me. Sadly, I don’t think I could do the opposite – figure out what to say, truthfully, to get myself ON the jury.

Actually, two things: jury nullification is the notion that a jury can believe that the defendant is guilty according to the law, but still refuse to apply the law to that defendant, for any reason whatsoever (not just that the law seems to be to that individual juror unjust). Second, it’s not really an “undisputed legal right” as it is illegal in at least California and most of the other American jurisdictions I’ve looked at. It’s only a “legal right” in the sense that it is very difficult to prove, because generally the juror at issue will lie under oath about what happened.

42

I served years ago. Since that time I have resolved not to participate. My county has a bad record of the prosecutor and investigators fudging evidence. My brother died because law enforcement refused to act.

The jury process here is to send questionnaires to all people in random sample groups. Those who respond to those questionnaires and are qualified are eventually called for service. Failure to respond to a summons will result in a warrant for arrest. Failure to return a questionnaire has no apparent penalty. Theoretically, the judge could issue a summons to every party in the sample group who did not respond to a questionnaire. However, to remain random, they would need to summons every one of those. Court time and the fact that about half the potential responders are not qualified by way of address, age or criminal record has caused the system not to chase those non responders. I will always respond to any summons, but will take a “conscious objector” status at that point.

Bottom line: I won’t be on any jury.

43

I’ll do it as long as work doesn’t prevent me (which would realistically be anything more than a few days in length). I got summoned to be on a grand jury last year, which had me shitting bricks because it was 3 or 4 months long, with at least 2-3 half days of service a week. Luckily the judge understood what a difficult time commitment this was for most people, and excused about 80% of the panel right off the bat for work reasons.

I’m not sure how much of a “jury of your peers” people really get nowadays.

44

I can’t get out of jury duty. I work for the county Clerk who is also the Clerk of Court.:smiley:

45

I’ve been called 4 times. All in my former home state of Alaska, once was when I was pretty young, not much past voting age IIRC, I went and took a book and didn’t even make it a few hours, most of us were excused because there were plenty of prospectives in the lower numbers (or something).

The next three times I was 1.) pregnant with complications, 2.) without transportation (no buses or public transportation in Kenai at the time) 3.) nursing an infant.

I actually think it would be really interesting to get a really juicy criminal case, but I wouldn’t be able to afford it and would probably try and get excused for financial hardship. I’ve been in WA for over a year and haven’t been called.

46

The only time I made an effort to get out of jury duty was at this big federal drug trial that was supposed to go on for 6 weeks or some ungodly amount of time. During voir dire I claimed financial hardship so the judge put the brakes on the proceedings, dragged me and a bunch of lawyers into a side room, made me sit in a chair in the middle of the room with everyone else all around and made me explain why the couple of days pay that my job provided for jury duty wouldn’t quite cover my expenses for the duration of the trial. No wonder it was going to take forever.

Not that I’m totally averse to jury duty. I did serve on one jury for a robbery/assault with a ‘dangerous instrument’ case with Judge Obus (of DSK fame) years ago.

The other two times I had jury duty I just sat in the jury pool room and read for a couple days, got called up for a couple cases but didn’t get picked.

47

Called twice. The first time I was an undergrad taking a perfectly ridiculous schedule; the judge offered to let me defer to the summertime. I explained that I wasn’t even sure I would be in town for the summer, and he said in that case I’d have to do it now. He was kind of a dick about it–I mean, I understand that it’s an important civic duty and all, but that’s still no reason to be a dick. I went ahead and deferred to the summertime, and ended up serving on a one-day weed possession trial.

The next time I was called was after I started working. I was the only doctor in the clinic at the time–me not being there meant a lot of health care wouldn’t happen, so I barely even had to ask before they let me out.

These days I have a more academic job and plenty of colleagues to cover me, so I think I would go ahead and serve.

48

That’s what I love about fellow Americans.

American 1: “We have a real justice system! We promote freedom! Prosperity! Fair judgment! We’re a democracy!”

American 2: “A jury duty notice came for you.”

American 1: “Oh, FUCK! I gotta fake my own death! Call 911 and tell them I’m missing!”

:smiley:

49

I’ve gotten the summons a bunch of times, usually I was never in the group that actually had to show up. Twice I used the phone postponement because I was busy.

The most recent time I got called in but didn’t get picked for the jury. I was unemployed anyway so I wanted to serve. But I never even got to the questioning stage. There’s a high likelihood I would have been dismissed anyway, since I couldn’t honestly agree to not consider the fairness of the law itself as a factor.

Anyway when I didn’t want to serve the most I would do is use the legitimate postponement. I wouldn’t try to act my way out. And now I’d like to serve but would probably get dismissed for certain cases.

50

Lots of summonses (sp?) for me over the years. I have no problem serving, and since my employer has a stated policy of full pay for jury duty (unlimited, as far as I can tell), I could serve months on a trial with no measurable harm to me.

That being said, I’ve never made it to a trial. Either they accept a deal at the last minute, or I’m numerically rejected (once they went all the way to #23 in the pool, and I was #24).

51

I’ve been summoned thrice. Served on a criminal trial the first time, was dismissed before voir dire the second, and on the most recent date my juror number was not among those required to report. I’ve never tried to get out of it, but I admit to being relieved when I didn’t have to serve.

52

In Harris County, you can go online & postpone jury duty–with considerable latitude.

53

I’ve been summoned three times also. The first time it was for a civil trial and they managed to settle while we jurors were sitting in the courtroom waiting, so we never even started. The second time, they only needed a couple of alternates, so they dismissed almost all of us. The third time I did try to beg off because I was newly pregnant and not feeling up to dealing with having to ask for bathroom breaks constantly or dealing with nausea in the middle of the trial, but I didn’t end up on the final list, so it didn’t matter.

I wouldn’t try to weasel out of it unless there was a reason, like a physical problem or an untenable childcare situation. My job is flexible, so work isn’t a problem.

54

Looking at all of your posts, I have been unlucky with the cases my GF and I have been summoned for. Mine was agg. sexual assault of a minor and the judge thought it’d take 4 days or more to hear. I got tossed in the first round of voir dire, which was a mixed blessing. I’d have liked to have seen the case, as I’ve never sat through an entire trial before. OTOH, 4 days off, and the subject matter…yeech.

My GF was in the pool for a capital murder re-sentencing. The killer had been found guilty, but was eligible for a new sentencing hearing after a higher court ruled that an entire class of capital convicts had improper sentencing hearings. The voir dire for her took three separate days. (The last two were half-days.) Just the voir dire. IIRC, she was told the hearing itself might take 2 weeks or easily more. She was happy to be excused from the panel. I do not know whether she intended to be excused, but I can not blame her if she did. I probably would have tried my hardest to have been excused, were I in that position.

55

I’ve been summoned a number of times. A couple of times I pleaded financial hardship & can’t take the time, and was excused. A couple of times I’ve reported and not been picked.

This last time, I’m living in a small town that has a courthouse. However, I get summoned for jury duty in a city sixty miles away. I don’t have (at this time) reliable transportation (at least not that distance). I called the court clerk and asked “Why can’t you just have me serve my jury duty in the courthouse in my town?” They couldn’t do that, but they accepted that my car was not up to snuff and excused me.

Which really wasn’t my intent. I would like to serve on a jury. As it happens, I work for a law office. :cool:

56

My county is mainly rural. Because of that we’re required to be “on-call” for a full 5 day week. In this case it is in your best interest to get selected to a jury early since the judges mostly let you out of jury duty once you’ve served during the week, even though the official paperwork says you could still be selected again. Basically at the end of the trial, the judge says, “Thanks jury. You can all go back to work tomorrow. You will not be called again this week.”

However, like many some people have mentioned above, my employer pays me for jury duty. I can even keep the money the court pays me to be there (some companies require that you turn your jury pay to receive your salary for those days). So I actually come out ahead on the deal.

I did it a couple years ago and enjoyed the experience. Even got a couple of free lunches out of the deal paid for by the judge.

57

I would like to serve, but actually would have a health-related issue (sleep disorders) that would make it VERY challenging to try to sit through a trial without falling asleep.

I’ve only been called twice - once in the early 80s (sat around all day and then dismissed), and once a couple of years ago, where I phoned the night before and was told I wasn’t needed. I did have a note from the doctor that time saying I was unable to serve.

58

I’ve never been summoned but if I was I wouldn’t try to get out of it*. I’m a nerd, I like legal stuff and I think it’d be interesting to sit on a jury.

  • Barring a damn good reason
59

I was called to the courthouse once, but wasn’t selected for the jury. Other physicists have told me that they’ve had similar experiences: Lawyers don’t seem to like us much.

I would never actually try to get out of jury duty: It’s at least as much a privilege as it is a duty. People always complain about the outcomes of court cases; it makes no sense that everyone should try to get out of the opportunity to have a say in those outcomes.

60

Called five times. First time I was working as a teacher, an exempt class at that time, so didn’t serve. Second time I was sole caretaker of preschool children. Third time - served on a criminal trial. Fourth time - served on a grand jury. Fifth time - called while already serving on the grand jury. Excused.

I find the process and the experience very very interesting. Also figure it’s my duty to serve so there will be at least one intelligent person on the panel (she said modestly).