Jury Duty!

[CodeRage]

Who in their right gawt damned mind summons jurors on the Friday before Most Christmas breaks start. I have to put in a few extra days over the break to meet some pushed up dead lines and this doesn't help any.

I used to not have a problem with jury duty until after the last jury I served on. It was an attempted aggravated assault on a police officer, attempted suicide by cop really.... Stuck in deliberation for 3 days because some jack ass felt that you could do what ever the hell you wanted to in your own home. Never mine wtf'ing law says... Hung jury.

I am hoping that people are more sensible this time around...

 

[thataintchicken]

last time I had jury duty, i was excluded immediately.
My housemate was an investigator for the DA's office.
I worked at a tv station.
My mom was a cop.
I held parties for the DA staff at my house..... Homebrew and BBQ for days.


No jury duty.

 

[Chudz]

I think if you express that you are sexually attracted to the defendant during the question and answer period, then you may find yourself going home early.

I actually felt that way on the only time I had to serve more than one day. The Defendant was a female corrections officer who hit the vehicle of a suburban police officer. Still a pain in the butt, but one small part of our supposedly contributing to our "Free" society.

Peace.

 

[cheesecake]

Ive gotten 2 notices to go and so far every time i call to find out if i need to report they dismiss me....oh well just seems to waste time

 

[CodeRage]

I think if you express that you are sexually attracted to the defendant during the question and answer period, then you may find yourself going home early.

I actually felt that way on the only time I had to serve more than one day. The Defendant was a female corrections officer who hit the vehicle of a suburban police officer. Still a pain in the butt, but one small part of our supposedly contributing to our "Free" society.

Peace.

Nice! Think I should dig out the most metro sexual looking outfit in my closet so I have all the bases covered.

Edit: NEVER been dismissed, always served.

 

[zman]

I have never been called for Jury Duty....knocks on wood

 

[Munch671]

Well you could always take this approach, although I wouldn't recommend it.

 

[philrose]

I found it relaxing. No work stress for 2 days, hour and a half lunch, home in time for happy hour for once.

Download some brewing podcasts and make the best of it I guess.

 

[Locorcr]

Been called several times only got picked once, when I was a senior in high school, could have got out of it but wanted to serve, was fun being a high school student and changing minds of adults.

 

[Yooper]

I've been on several juries- from breaking and entering to sexual assault. The last time was a federal case. I didn't mind it, but the Federal court house is 89 miles away! You are supposed to be commute if it's less than 90 miles, but that's a long way, so I got permission from the judge to stay in a motel for the week. I had to go to the Dollar Store and buy a few necessities, then to a Thrift Store at lunch time to buy a few clothes, since the trial went a week.

I liked doing it, and I liked the process. I did NOT like the verdict we reached. We knew the guy did something bad to the victim but he did not do what he was being charged with so we all agreed he was not guilty. That sucked.

 

[beergears]

Not me, but SWMBO, who has many years of social work experience, did a grand jury (I think) once. Her take-away was that there are incredibly stupid people out there, more stupid than mean, for the most part.

 

[CodeRage]

Well, 1 of 3 judges needed jury's today and my luck number was called. Time to do my civil duty...
At least they have these slow little linux terminals to kill the time with.. Beat a sharp stick in the eye.

 

[david_42]

Called many times, never selected. Lawyers don't like engineers apparently.

Last bullet ducked would have been the Federal court in Portland. Got scheduled twice. I'm just inside the commuting limit and they do not grant exceptions. Would have been 4-5 hours on the road every day.

Her take-away was that there are incredibly stupid people out there, more stupid than mean, for the most part.

Learned that in the Navy. What do you do with a guy who cannot remember which way a screw turns?

 

[craven_morhead]

Nope. Lots of lawyers don't like engineers, especially in civil cases. I'm a newly-minted attorney, and I would guess that will keep me off of just about any jury I get called for.

 

[VApatriot]

If you ever get picked for a jury, just tell the lawyers during voir dire that your well versed in jury nullification and you plan on teaching all of your fellow jurors about it and they will drop you like a hot potato. Works every time!

 

[malkore]

Call the Jury commission.

My wife got out of jury duty once because she had a familiy reunion to go to, plane tickets purchased, etc.

I got summoned once and was going to be gone that week on business. They deferred me and let me pick a different month to fulfill my duty.

in the end I was gone for 1 afternoon from work, and it only took 90 minutes before we were dismissed so I didn't go back to the office.

work just paid me for the afternoon, and then I signed my stipend check over to the CFO.

it was an interesting process.

 

[homebrewer_99]

I got out of JD when I was the only weapons LAR supporting the 82nd Airborne Division...apparently the judge also thought I was needed there more...

If you tend to swear and use derogatory/prejudicial terms a lot they'll want you to vacate the building too...

 

[Jim Karr]

I was asked to serve on the Fed jury in Kalamazoo back when my kidlets were really little. I sent them a response letter explaining that my wife left for work before I did, leaving me with the kids. I would have had to drive 35 miles after finding someone to watch the kids, pay for parking, and be in the courthouse all by 8AM. How early did they want me to get my kids up in the morning so we could pass judgement on some drug dealer?

I got out of duty.

 

[BBKing]

Got out of it once. Both my father and grandfather were city attorneys here in my hometown and I know most judges and other attorneys by name. Hell, I'm in regular contact with the judge that was presiding.

I was kind of bummed, I used to sit through my dads arguments when I was little and really enjoyed some of it. I would have liked to see the process from a jurors point of view.

 

[yummybeer]

i luckily have not yet been called for jury duty.

 

[CodeRage]

Well, I was dismissed around 11:30 today. To be honest serving on a jury isn't too bad. It's the sitting around waiting for a case to start drives me crazy. It seem that no one wants to plea until a perspective jury is waiting in the wing.

I wonder why there is such an aversion for engineers? We take information, good, bad, or indifferent and try to make sense of it, usually a pretty objective lot. Figured that would be a desired trait. Oh well, off the hook for another year.

They changed the rules since I last served. You would check in Monday and you could wait all week for a case. Now it is one day only, come in on your day and if you are dismissed with out a case your duty has been served. I had heard of people sitting on a jury twice in the same week. I have to admit, it's an improved system. The odds of being randomly selected are higher but that is okay by me.

 

[jpc]

I served on a grand jury for my county about ten years ago. Two days a week (Tuesday and Thursday) for two months. It's much easier than a regular jury, since it's one-sided and all you do is decided to indict based on whether or not there is sufficient evidence presented. Of course, there were some things that were extremely uncomfortable, like hearing an 8-year-old tell how he was sexually abused, and there were the pics of dead people that we had to consider.

Anyway, most of the time I was out by noon, and there was no way I was driving 1 1/2 hours into work for nothing, so I ended up having a lot of spring afternoons free.

 

[gplutt]

I found it relaxing. No work stress for 2 days, hour and a half lunch, home in time for happy hour for once.

Download some brewing podcasts and make the best of it I guess.

Same. I found it relaxing. I brought a couple books and got some quiet reading in. Didn't even get called.

 

[Cheeto]

I was served notice while in Iraq, I wrote them a polite letter stating that if they provided transportation I would gladly sit on the jury.


I was dismissed quickly

 

[weirdboy]

I was recently on a jury. Waiting around for a panel to be called took about a day. Then jury selection took three days. Then the trial took 2 days. Then deliberation took forever. One juror was the most ignorant person I've ever had the displeasure of meeting. I mean...they gave us notebooks to take notes. Everyone took notes, except this guy. But then he didn't remember any of the evidence presented during the trial, upon which he was supposed to be basing his decision. We had to keep asking for the court recorder to come in and read parts of the transcript, and every time took like half a day to arrange. He was the ONE guy who voted the other way. We politely asked him why and he couldn't state any reason other than "I dunno". I wanted to get him booted off the jury. Instead, we ended up with a hung jury after several days of wasting everyone's time and money.

 

[CodeRage]

I was recently on a jury. Waiting around for a panel to be called took about a day. Then jury selection took three days. Then the trial took 2 days. Then deliberation took forever. One juror was the most ignorant person I've ever had the displeasure of meeting. I mean...they gave us notebooks to take notes. Everyone took notes, except this guy. But then he didn't remember any of the evidence presented during the trial, upon which he was supposed to be basing his decision. We had to keep asking for the court recorder to come in and read parts of the transcript, and every time took like half a day to arrange. He was the ONE guy who voted the other way. We politely asked him why and he couldn't state any reason other than "I dunno". I wanted to get him booted off the jury. Instead, we ended up with a hung jury after several days of wasting everyone's time and money.

Sounds very similar to the last jury I sat on. "Why couldn't this guy have been the alternate?!"

 

[homebrewer_99]

I was recently on a jury. Waiting around for a panel to be called took about a day. Then jury selection took three days. Then the trial took 2 days. Then deliberation took forever. One juror was the most ignorant person I've ever had the displeasure of meeting. I mean...they gave us notebooks to take notes. Everyone took notes, except this guy. But then he didn't remember any of the evidence presented during the trial, upon which he was supposed to be basing his decision. We had to keep asking for the court recorder to come in and read parts of the transcript, and every time took like half a day to arrange. He was the ONE guy who voted the other way. We politely asked him why and he couldn't state any reason other than "I dunno". I wanted to get him booted off the jury. Instead, we ended up with a hung jury after several days of wasting everyone's time and money.

Sounds like he had no where to go and didn't care that everyone else did...

 

[Domminigan]

I got drawn once so far.
I was on a selection list of people who were "On call" for three months. I had to call in every monday to see if I was on the roster for that week, and had to show up the next day if called on the day before.
I was out of work though, so it wasn't like I had anything better to do. In fact, I was pretty stoked about it. First potential case I was called for was particularly blase, but I got kicked off of it anyway. See, when I concentrate on listening to something tedious, my eyes tend to drift until they lock on something. I'm not actually looking at it, and it doesn't register in my mind that I'm even looking at it, but I'll stare at it until I have to move. This time it happened to be the defense attorney that I was staring at... for well over an hour. I was not selected.

 

[mordantly]

i just got out of my summons. i get one every year. this year im not registered to vote or have a valid license (until june 2010) and they still got me.