Poll of the Day > I got a jury summons

(+) Yeah! (+)

Will this be fun? I mean, I do get paid at work for Jury duty, so it's not like I'd have to miss work or anything.
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AwesomeTurtwig posted...

Will this be fun?

Unless you get chosen for the juror panel and have an interesting case, no.

AwesomeTurtwig posted...

I do get paid at work for Jury duty, so it's not like I'd have to miss work or anything.

Depends on your work's policy. Some companies cover zero jury days, some a few, and some cover unlimited jury days. The court itself usually won't pay you some pitiful amount until you get chosen for the juror panel. My company doesn't so I have to use sick days for jury duty though I have heard in some cases the judge might require your company to still pay you if chosen for the juror panel. I have sat on the juror panel screening three times in my past three summons but was always dismissed.

Oddly enough I don't mind getting chosen for jury duty but it bugs the heck outta me when people try and weasel their way out of getting chosen by wasting the courts time with excuses that the court care naught for. There were two jurors once who said they couldn't understand English that well. Both were immigrated over when they were kids. One graduated high school here and another passed a hair dressing certification test that was in English. The judge deemed both capable of understanding English.
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Telling them that you don't agree with the American justice system when you show up is a very quick way to get them to let you leave. The racism card is a bit harder to pull these days unless you're a senior citizen from what I hear. Not sure how true that is.

My buddy wore a Che shirt and told them he was a communist and got to leave no questions asked.
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RedPixel posted...

The racism card is a bit harder to pull these days unless you're a senior citizen from what I hear. Not sure how true that is.

Funny enough, my mentor had one case where the defendant chose to represent himself and he purposely dismissed anyone that wasn't of the same ethnic group as him. I guess he was hoping the remaining jurors would be more likely to side with him if they share the same ethnicity.
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InfestedAdam posted...

Some companies cover zero jury days, some a few, and some cover unlimited jury days

No shit, that's why I said I get paid for it.
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I got one in March. I had to call in each Wednesday evening for three weeks and listen to a recording where names of selected jurors are read off to see if I had been chosen.

I was not called upon.

AwesomeTurtwig posted...

InfestedAdam posted...

Some companies cover zero jury days, some a few, and some cover unlimited jury days

No shit, that's why I said I get paid for it.

My mistake. Somehow I read that as you asking if you get paid.

BeerOnTap posted...

I got one in March. I had to call in each Wednesday evening for three weeks and listen to a recording where names of selected jurors are read off to see if I had been chosen.

I was not called upon.

Interesting. Quite different from how it is done here in Los Angeles county. We get notified of the week we will serve and starting Sunday night through Thursday night we need to call each day to see if we need to report in on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc. With my luck, I normally do not get called in until Friday.
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No matter what it's going to suck. Not sure why some people -- like Jen -- are so keen to serve on a jury.

I got called to a federal courthouse, had to wait around in a room resembling an airport lobby almost for an hour or two (90% of that time doing nothing) before being walked down to the chambers where I spent another almost 2 hours listening to instructions and other people answer selection questions.
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I got one and have to go in about a week, unless they call and say not to go.

InfestedAdam posted...

Interesting. Quite different from how it is done here in Los Angeles county. We get notified of the week we will serve and starting Sunday night through Thursday night we need to call each day to see if we need to report in on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc. With my luck, I normally do not get called in until Friday.

Here, they tell you when to show up and then dismiss you from there or send you to a courtroom. It's quite annoying, since all 3 times I've had jury duty, I was dismissed before getting to a court room. Thus, wasting my time and getting downtown for nothing. At least if they dismiss you after questioning you, you get paid something. When you're dismissed from the waiting hall you get nothing for your wasted effort.
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