I was never called until I moved from a tiny company to a corporate job – a job where more than two dozen out of a hundred people have served in the last year. Does make you wonder about the randomness of the process.
Anyway, my asthma is bad enough that my doctor wrote me an excuse without hesitation. When I called the court the clerk I talked to was a bit suspicious at first, but I gave (I guess) sensible answers and then he was very nice. No problem. I wouldn’t lie to get out of it, but I hate the idea of being on a jury and was glad to have an excuse.
Little wonder we get the kind of verdicts that keep the pundits growling with outrage – all the smart people know how to get out of serving as jurors.
Maybe we should reverse the pressure and try to find a way to keep the bleedin’ idiots safe at home, watching our decisions on their little talking boxes.
That said, I must admit I’ve often been called to jury duty but have never served. As a sole proprietor of a small business in a volatile industry, entanglement in a protracted trial could easily put sixteen people (including myself) out into the street. It hasn’t yet escaped a judge’s notice that the possibility of inducing sixteen bankruptcies and foreclosures would do little to lighten the overall caseload.
Fer ye case-hardened perjurers in the audience, I suppose I should also mention that I’ve never yet been asked to produce evidence to support this argument. They simply take ya at yer word. (Though they do make you sign yer name to it.)
Dr. Watson.
“And so then, what happens to that theory if God actually does turn out to be a little green watering can in Geneva?”
The first time, I was dismissed because I knew the defendant (not a criminal case).
The second time, I think I was dismissed because, in answer to the prosecutor’s question, I said that he would really REALLY have to prove the person guilty before I could agree to convict.
The third time, another civil case, the plaintiff’s attorney had just finished representing my cousin in a civil suit.
I really wasn’t trying to get out of it. That’s just the way it worked out.
Of the crafty avoiders… how many of you have served on a jury? I’ve had one experience. It will likely be my last. I was foreman of the jury selected for a highly publicized civil trial that went on for a month. I had to work at least two or three hours a day in addition to the eight of the trial to keep my job. It was a royal pain in the ass. But it was the most intriguing experience of my life to date. Relationships developed and alliances and rivalries formed and disintegrated at an astonishing pace in the cramped jury room. After the verdict, twelve people who annoyed each other for four weeks and fought bitterly for almost two days hugged each other like old friends.
Not the typical case, I’ll grant you. But if you have a chance and you can afford to spare a few days, it can be an experience quite suited to the curious mind.
I’ve been told it would be “my last” because of a) the length of the trial and b) the public nature of the case… both mitigate towards my remaining out of the pool for a long time, unless I move.
Well, i’ve been called several times. Never once was i ever questioned or chosen for a jury. I just sat in a room for a while, then was dismissed. A couple years ago, i read an article in the paper about avoiding jury duty. apparently they never take any action if you never respond. something about “it would look bad prosecuting people for avoiding jury duty”.
taking that into account, i threw away my next jury summons. a couple months later i got another, along the lines of “since you missed the last one…”
i threw that one away as well. I have yet to hear from them again.
FWIW, you CANNOT get off at least reporting for jury duty in NY. My mother in law had just had hip surgery and my husband and I were caring for her, so he thought when he went in they would excuse him.
First off, no one is exempted before reporting. No one. Not doctors, not lawyers, not GOD. You must report. You get ONE extension if you need it, but if you use it you’ll be called again right away and you must report.
When my husbands group was being discussed, they interviewed so many jurors and eliminated them that they were left with only a small group. That group was not even talked to, not given an opportunity to speak to the judge or anything. They were just picked. Period. No arguments, no getting out, no nothing. He had to serve a 3 day jury while I ran back and forth taking care of Mom.
So don’t try any tricks in NY. Must be they’ve seen it all.
Zette
Love is like popsicles…you get too much you get too high.
Ive gotten notices in the mail a couple of times, but never actually had to go in. The first time I was relieved because I had to fly to Chicago to audition for grad school at that time. But otherwise Ive been kinda disappointed. It’s more than just civic duty, we as citizens are (partially) responsible for keepng the court system running smoothly (“speedy trial” and all that…). Also, it must be a hell of a lot more interesting to see it in action than just read about it in Civics class.
Letterman had a top ten list of how to get out of jury duty…my three faves (okay, the only three I can remember):
Randomly point to people in the courtroom and shout, “He did it! She did it! He did it!”
Answer every question with, “Let me ask the little man who lives in my pants.”
Loudly say, “Hey! Who’s frying baloney?”
This year I got called three times in two months. lol.
You can’t use deafness as an excuse anymore because they provide interpreters. But being deafened, I simply say that I don’t know enough sign language yet for something that fast. As you can see, they kept writing me two more times…lol
I was on jury duty earlier this year (this is NY) and heard two funny excuses during the voir dire (sp?).
(I should note that this was an attempted murder trial. Both the defendant and the complaining witness were (East)Indian immigrants.) One prospective juror stated that he’s very prejudiced against Indians and won’t believe anything either one of them says. He got off.
One woman said she couldn’t be sequested because she had incontinent cats at home. She got picked.
First off, shame on all of you for ditching your duty to serve. Yes, it might be a pain in the ass to your job and your lifestyle, but so the hell is communism and facism.
I’ve been called four times: Once to US District (or was it Federal?I forget) court ( had to go downtown Detroit every day for two weeks and sit for 8 hours wondering if we would get picked. I live an hour and a half away. Detroit is a scary place in the daylight and I had to arrive there in the winter before the sun was up and left after it set. I met alot of interesting and intelligent people. Never got picked. My boss paid me for the entire time and let me keep the jury duty money and mileage.)
All the other times it’s been local and I was picked to serve on jury duty for a murder trial. It was absolutely one of the most fascinating experiences of my life.Nothing like you see on TV. One guy on our duty was a high school principal and he thought it sucked at first and after the whole thing was done. One entire week invested ( we had Wednesday off, he said he would do it again in a heart beat. Me too.
It is a small price to pay for liberty and the freedoms we are use too.
I got summoned once. They let me out of one case because I didn’t have a job that would pay me to serve for 3+ months, and in the next case they found all their jurors and alternates before my name came out of the hat. But for the next two weeks I had to call in every morning to find out if I was needed. What SUCKED is that I was temping at the time, so I had to just take the two weeks off work - who’s going to hire a temp who might have to leave after a few hours? - and I never got even the measly $5 per day that California jurors get. It is a damn good thing my bills weren’t too high that month. The whole thing still pisses me off.
First time out I was sent down with several groups for the questioning process and eventually ended up being picked for a drug trial. Lasted several weeks and then I ended up getting drawn as an alternate so I didn’t stay for the deliberations (although the alternates were told that they could be called back if one of the other jurors needed to be replaced). All the defendents (there were about a half dozen of them) were found guilty–the court clerk called with the verdict.
Second time, only a couple of groups were sent to the courtrooms for questioning (I wasn’t in either of them) and then all the rest of the potential jurors were dismissed because the remaining cases of the day were settled or postponed.
There was a cop who ate lunch with a group of us in the cafeteria on my second time out, who told us how he dealt with jury summons. He threw them out–said that since the summons are just sent regular US mail, there’s no way anyone could prove he got his.