I was called for jury duty yesterday (Wed., jan 3). I did not actually serve, but here are my experiences/observations:
-was first called to serve on a murder case. Judge did not begin selection, due to witness failure to show up.
-In the afternoon, was called in on a personal injury/civil case. The plaintiff had collided with a gate left open, while riding his bicycle past the company property. Again, I never made the jury.
My observations:
-the plaintiff was sueing a large company. They in turn, were involving the security firm that managed their property (and hence the gate).
-there were (count em) a total of NINE lawyers before the judge! ( 3 each for the plaintiff, defendant, and the other party)!
The jury selection took 4-5 hours - really bizarre process!The various lawyers were clutching papers showing the jury members(kind of looked like a football play diagram).
At any rate, I pondered the situation-here were 9 lawyers, each charging around $300.00/hour-thats about $2700.00/hour, or roughly $13,500. for the afternoon-looks like there might not be much left for the plaintiff!(the judges said he expected the case to run for 12-15 days).So, in round numbers, figure $324,000 for the legal representation-no wonder medical treatment is so expensive!
It sounds like you did way too much thinking while on jury duty. I love jury duty. In LA county jury duty goes for 2 weeks, although they are reducing it to 1 week (I think that goes into effect this year). I don’t want to serve on a jury. I look at it as a vacation from work without having to use vacation days. I can read the WHOLE LATimes, meet gobs of interesting people, read that book I have put off, do some crafts, and generally lounge about in the jury room.
Oh I know some of you will get on my case about “civic duty”, but I have served on a panel and will probably do so again. One thing is lawyers for the defense tend to dismiss me from the jury when they find out I am an engineer.
Now egkelly about the $$$ you estimated. The company could have avoided all of this by settling. If the plaintiff was bright he also would have done his best to settle before trial because now most of the $$$ will go to his lawyer.
Your dollar estimates on fees are probably quite high. $300/hr is roughly what a senior partner in a significant law firm would charge. It is very unlikely that more than one of those lawyers for each side is a senior partner. Associates bill much less, ultimately depending on their experience. And the plaintiff’s lawyers are most likely working on a contingency basis, meaning they don’t get paid a penny unless they win. 30-35% is a likely guess, if they do win.
I’ve had the exact same thing happen to me twice. Don’t they trust us? Wouldn’t you’d think they’d want somebody who can visualize things on the jury?
They don’t want someone who is rational, they want someone who is emotional. As engineers we tend to look at the facts too much rather than just sympathizing with their clients.