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Jury Duty - Care to Share Your Experience?

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I'm not trying to avoid jury duty, personally. I'm interested in why people would be (and would want to be) excused. Age, disabilities, etc. make sense. "I'm just too darn important at work" should = "Welcome to the jury!"
 
Just did it in November..Lee County FL,Ft Myers Downtown and lovely drive through the very Las Vegas-esque streets around there at 7:30 am..Pawn shops,motels,bail bond fronts etc.
They have a juror parking lot a few blocks from the courthouse and walk from there.Would be nice if Ft Myers would replace the stolen street signs so people would know what intersection they were at.

I have been summoned 5 times in 25 years,forced to report 3 times as my number was low enough to report.Previous two went ok..check in at 8am then watch a video about how the trial system works,then the guy running it tells everyone to sit tight to see if any cases will start that day.Ok there used to be a smoking area balcony open air and you would meet some people (Just like Vegas,except over coffee) and just deal with it.Then by 12 pm the guy would report we are all dismissed.And you are free..nice feeling!

Well last time November 14 Monday (My day off at work) I had to go..and I noticed something unusual off the bat.The guy mentions "When" you meet the judge and not "If".Same guy btw every time and he cracks the same jokes.it's not funny anymore even if it was first time..

Well this time he starts the video and then reports we all have to fill out a questionnaire (a first for me,and we got a juror #) Not good I'm guessing..So that takes an hour and around 10 am or so,here comes the bailiff and they start calling numbers..half the room of 300 were called!!.My number was 43 so I'm sweating every F word out of his mouth...playing reverse keno in my head...and you have no idea when the number calling will stop!

It eventually stops and I'm feeling good..waiting for the guy to tell us to hang tight for awhile..No he puts the video on again and the shortly later here comes the same bailiff and from where I was sitting I could see her though the window of the hallway door,and she smiled at me...oh boy

I think he called another 50 and I was in right off the bat..File in order out the room and up to courtroom and meet judge and attorneys.Then a lunch break (back to my car to smoke a cigarette) and grab a cookie and more coffee from the shitty cafeteria..

Case was a civil suit,guy suing State Farm Auto for back pain from being rear ended.Older guy sitting there as well as the older lady driver of the car that hit him on the State farm side.Attorney for the guy is the biggest name on tv/radio in SW FL Morgan and Morgan.

The Voir Dire take a couple hours...Asking us all sorts of questions..including what our favorite tv shows are...one by one everyone had to answer..
Forgot to mention the people who tried to exit early .One biker chick in serious tats and leather said she could not hear the judge..Ha judge directs bailiff to supply hearing headphones for her and they set that up.Fail.One older guy was let go as he did not speak English and the son was there for him as far as the courtroom and the judge was not happy about that.She made note to someone that was a mistake.

I knew my out was having State Farm myself as others did also when that question came up..I told the plantiff attorney I was rear-ended and forced to hit the car in front of me and SF took care of everything so yes I would be maybe partial to SF in this case..
So we all take another break and see who the jurors would be..back to me car for a smoke and after some thought If I am picked I will do the right thing and listen to both sides of the story and yes come back the next day as the judge said it will take that long.Now matter how hard I try to avoid it I will be responsible if I have to.
Well they did not pick me and I was home by 4 pm or so..

I really think Jury Duty should be volunteer.Seniors with life-time experience..
I personally would not want to be charged with a crime I did not commit and knowing the jury just wants to get the hell home from this PIA in their lives..
 
WichitaMuskie said:
I'm not trying to avoid jury duty, personally. I'm interested in why people would be (and would want to be) excused. Age, disabilities, etc. make sense. "I'm just too darn important at work" should = "Welcome to the jury!"
Click to expand...

And I didn't accuse you of that. Posts don't always follow a logical pattern when other comments space through.

As for the big question, as you are seeing, finding a way out -- or at least being relieved of service duty -- is a popular thing, so maybe those who try like hell not to serve should answer that question. But like 4-F back in the day, some people simply are not physically capable of serving. My mom could've opted out, but she served to the end of her life; she loved being on juries. She felt participatory, responsible, and she was a bit of a fan of the absurdity of life as so often plays out in trials.
 
WichitaMuskie said:
I'm not trying to avoid jury duty, personally. I'm interested in why people would be (and would want to be) excused. Age, disabilities, etc. make sense. "I'm just too darn important at work" should = "Welcome to the jury!"
Click to expand...

There are a lot of people out there who would feel that important, and absolutely aren't

But there is no great shortage, I would expect, of people for whom an 8 week work interruption would be a big problem. Surgeons, for example. Also caregivers (for special needs children or the elderly).

Then a bunch of others who would always get dismissed anyway (lawyers).

There are also any number of people (for example, sole proprietors/consultants) who can't realistically walk on their contracts or replace their work for a big gap.
 
Nevyn said:
Then a bunch of others who would always get dismissed anyway (lawyers).
Click to expand...

Lawyers definitely do not always get dismissed. As a matter of fact, my boss (and fellow attorney) is serving jury duty this very moment.
 
Looks like both your reply and my question were posted at almost the same time. :peace:
 
It's a little bit surprising to have lawyers doing jury duty, but in our cases, we're corporate attorneys. We haven't been in a court room since getting sworn into the bar. Other than having read a lot of cases more than a decade ago, we're not that different than any other potential juror when it comes to most cases (particularly criminal).
 
I had grand jury for 6 weeks 5 days a week. A paid vacation. We were out by noon most days and spent half the time on breaks.
 
The criminal grand jury that brings indictments or the oversight grand jury that looks at governmental practices?
 
I have had to report downtown 4 times. never selected. it has probably been close to ten years since I have been called. I wonder if they have branded me in some kind of way. the county I live I has a very high crime rate, so I am sure they have plenty of cases to try. and we have been losing population. go figure.
 
Federal grand jury that met once a month, for two days, for about a year. It was interesting, I learned a lot about the drug trade, gangs and fraud.

:peace: :beer:
 
Question for the attorneys here on VMB. Is it a defendant's right to choose a bench trial at both the federal and state level for criminal charges? Thx.

:peace: :beer:
 
WichitaMuskie said:
I'm not trying to avoid jury duty, personally. I'm interested in why people would be (and would want to be) excused. Age, disabilities, etc. make sense. "I'm just too darn important at work" should = "Welcome to the jury!"
Click to expand...


Some people don't get paid for attending jury duty, other than the standard $9 or something a day. The judge normally asks jurors if it is a hardship or financial hardship to be away from work and not get paid. A number of people use that excuse to get out of being on the jury but they still have to go to court if called for jury duty (need to tell the judge why). I was in a jury pool once and the first thing they said was that they expected this trial to last around 3 months. There were around 200 in the pool and I think almost half of the people said they couldn't be away from work that long. Me being a government worker hoped that I could be on that trial so I could be away from work for 3 months but alas I didn't make the final cut. I noticed that most jurors on that trial were elderly, government workers, homemakers or unemployed.
 
I have been called many times. Just drop a hint you are having bowel problems and somehow they never select you.
 
I have been called 5-6 times over the years but have never actually had to render a decision. I either wasn't picked or they settled before the case actually started. I know that as a CPA it is very unlikely that a plaintiffs attorney would ever want me on a civil jury. Just a few weeks ago I received a summons for a grand jury. The sad thing is that only 20 people out of the 125 summons that they sent out bothered to even show up. Even with those odds I still didn't get selected. If I had been selected, although it would certainly be somewhat of a burden to be on it, it also would have been an honor and my duty as a US citizen to serve. Other peoples opinion may vary.
 
ken2v said:
The criminal grand jury that brings indictments or the oversight grand jury that looks at governmental practices?
Click to expand...

Ken, I know you were not asking this of me, but I was on our county's criminal grand jury for a month. I think it was 4 days a week, Friday off. Not always all day. I actually kind of enjoyed it. No formal courtroom, heard up to 15 cases a day. We just determined if a case should go to court with the evidence presented to us. Lots of DUI cases, some petty theft, drugs. One case kept rearing its angry head was a murder case. Bits and pieces of evidence kept coming up. We also had to determine things like if phone records should be admissible. Yeah, some of it was pretty boring, some of it was quite comical. If I had my choice, I would absolutely do this again!
 

I have been "on call" for five separate months since my college years--about 4 or 5 years in between each cycle of service.
When you get your letter stating what month you're "on" you get a phone number to call each night or so for instructions on if/when you have to report.

I was only called in for jury selection once for each of the first three months. All three were for DUI cases.
(My last two months of service I didn't have to come in at all. All the cases were settled out of court or were rescheduled.)

I served on one jury. It was very interesting to see the process as a citizen taxpayer.
It was a lot different than L.A. Law and Law & Order. Although one of the lawyers did look a lot like Harry Hamlin.
It wasn't like Night Court, although the judge appeared to have a good sense of humor--no Bull.
It wasn't Twelve Angry Men by any means either. One man was really angry that he had to stay, but he ended up being the one that made deciding the verdict take so long...

The toughest part was having to stay in the jury room for lunch and breaks.
You could bring a book to read, but that was it. Glad it was just a one-day trial.

It was a day off for me anyway. Plus I got to keep my $4.00 mileage check. :thumbsup:

Funny part is my three siblings of similar age have never been summoned for service.
My parents have each only been called once in their lives, both of them in the last couple of years.

Maybe I'm extremely lucky that my juror number keeps coming up.
Maybe my county just really likes me! :D

RICHARD
 
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