Well I had made it 47 years without having been called for jury duty. All those years when I worked for my dad or had my tire store where I could have took off to do my duty, did they call me, hell no! No they wait until I've got a one man business, with no one to run it while I sit down there in the courtroom. I filled out the forms sent to me, and listed why I would like to be excused, but was denied, I'll get my chance again in courtroom Monday morning. It's not that I don't want to serve on jury duty, I really would like to, it's the fact, it will cause a great deal of trouble to do so, more than likely if made stay on jury, I'll still have to come in work in the evenings. I already work 6-7 day weeks in some wishful attempt to keep caught up on my job load, rarely take vacations, I really cannot afford the time jury duty will take from me.
Jury duty
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Print out some of the stories you've posted here about your crime fighting in your neighborhood. The defense lawyer will be more than happy to excuse you! :D
Good one Joe!!!
Or when they interview you to be on a jury just repeatedly yell "guilty guilty guilty!!!"
:)
Use the one that worked for me, tell them you watch CSI and believe in DNA eveidence.
Regards John
Several years back the wife got tapped for Fed jury to be served in Columbia, 100 miles form home. They told her there was an outside chance it could last as long as six months. Because of her arthritis, she was able for doctor to get her excused. Then about a year and a half later, they sent her another letter to serve on Fed jury in Anderson, about 30 miles away. Same deal. Again, she got the doc to write a letter to get her excused.
get it over with or they will recall you later.... OR in the interview tell them you want to be part of a fair trial and sit in as witness to the execution.
....quit voting...thats how they get your name.. I have been called 4/5 times,on the jury once, excused a couple, dismissed for smiling,( two lesbians in a knife fight)...one smile,..bingo I was gone.. stupid lawyer, I was probably one of the non-farmers there who would have given them the benefit of the doubt.
wyatt Wrote:
....quit voting...thats how they get your name.. I have been called 4/5 times,on the jury once, excused a couple, dismissed for smiling,( two lesbians in a knife fight)...one smile,..bingo I was gone.. stupid lawyer, I was probably one of the non-farmers there who would have given them the benefit of the doubt.
"
In Texas, they've started using drivers licenses for the pool.
We know what you mean Hap.
Jane was called in for jury duty 2 weeks ago. They were absolutely clueless when she tried to explain what the pre-Masters, spring rush was all about for landscape designers. Fortunately, the guy pled out and there was no trial.
wyatt Wrote:
....quit voting...thats how they get your name..
"
As a non-citizen I obviously don't vote but I was called for jury service last year. Once I mentioned to them that I wasn't a citizen they told me not to bother turning up.
My wife was called a couple of years ago, the the interview she told the defence lawyer that she did not believe that a cop would ever tell anything but the absolute truth.
She wasn't selected. :)
Wyatt,
In Michigan they use the driver's license/state id card list not voter registration.
Same here, drivers license will get you on the list in PA now. I served jury duty a couple of years ago, robbery-rape case. Even having been married to an attorney in my first marriage did not get me off the hook, and there were two self employed jurors serving with me - for 4 days!
Go in on Monday, wearing a T-shirt that says "Kill'em all and let God sort them out" or "If you're here, you're GUILTY!".
saysprite Wrote:
Go in on Monday, wearing a T-shirt that says "Kill'em all and let God sort them out" or "If you're here, you're GUILTY!".
"
One would receive a contempt of court fine doig that in these parts.
I've been on jury duty once...two weeks in circuit court. Yes it was a pain in the arse...I got booted off of four juries and selected for three.
It comes as part of being an American.
Just smile and "pay your dues".
Well pooh. I guess that takes out "Fork him, he's done" too.
Actually it is pretty interesting process. I got called for a week and went to the court room 1 time. I never was called up to the Jury box. We went back down to the jury room and we're dismissed.
Another way of getting out of it, is to get to know a DA outside of "work"
saysprite Wrote:
<snip>
Another way of getting out of it, is to get to know a DA outside of "work"
"
Something else that doesn't work in most courtrooms.
I know many, many police officers and several judges in the area. (My brother-in-law is third in command at the Champaign Police Department) Did not make one iota diference when it came for selection...even when the judge presiding over the court and I had been to Colorado skiing together.
drivers huh, that'll teach me...
...OK,...so how many of you have been called for Howdy duty....
Jury Duty is a necessary evil, and a privilage.
Been selected three times. One plead out the night before, another we broke for lunch after making the cut and plead out during lunch. Last time, guilty, but a minor issue.
In Texas it's where you reside. Deliberately not just registered voters (which I would prefer).
I've also been in a lawsuit that went to the jury. Trust me, you are doing someone a great favor by showing up. My peer group, three were english as a second language, one college grad, and two high school grads.
Just a horrible experience watching them be led around by local political BS. The closing arguement basically was "the defendend is guilty of all and this and more, but they are poor (they weren't, more money than me) and I am rich (that is an obscene joke). The judge was good friends of the defendent and the defendent's lawyer. They were bragging the weekend before the trial started how they had the judge they wanted (and not the one slotted). The one college educated juror ended up in professional therapy, so disturbed by it all.
Very bitter pill to swallow. So when I here of being selected, do it. We need honest people in there.
...footster....I was sued once, by a tennet, who wrote me a check for the move in rent + deposit on a closed account. I didnt press charges, just let him make it up in the rent over time. Yup, claimed his retarded kid fell and got hurt on my property. That family was trash. I had a box of evidence on them ,could not use it because it didnt have anything to do with this case. Their lawyer was a real dirt bag. Kept calling me up and harrassing me. Long story short, things didnt look good,and on the day of the trial we sat in court waiting....they never showed up. The judge knew of the case and dismissed it after 20 minutes of no show. They ran my wife and myself and kids through h*ll for months.These lowlifes had done this in Ill/ Ind and twice in Mi. The stupid sh*ts showed up the next day. Their atty got the date wrong....
....and yes...they trashed my property, the judge let them stay for rent free while we were litigating... and yes the had a better car and TV and furniture than my family.
..ask me why I vote the way I do....
forgot to mention, they were suing me for ownership of the house... a free and clear property.
Since the judge just presides over a trial, knowing him probably would not make much of a difference. The Police Chief of Winston-Salem, use to be a member of the church I went too. That probably would not effect a specific trial. However if you said "I was at a prayer service with the DA last Wednesday night", or "I had supper with the DA and his wife at the British Car Club meeting", if I was the defendant's lawyer, I would say "Excused". Just because, you would probably be leaning toward the Prosecution instead of being partial. On the other hand, if you said the same thing for the trial lawyer, I have a feeling the DA would say "Excused" also.
It just does not seem very random to me. I am up for jury duty at the court in Detroit in two weeks and i hope it has nothing to do with the Kwame Kilpatrick case.
I have served on a jury once in the past been called twice shortly after that and did not have to serve since they were too close together and My wife has never been called to serve in her life. That does not seem very even to me since she is slightly older than me as well.
I got tapped for the April-June jury pool here, had it last year also but never got called. no prosecutor in his right mind would have me on a jury anyway.
....would...we do not have diplomatic ties with your country work as an excuse??
saysprite Wrote:
Go in on Monday, wearing a T-shirt that says "Kill'em all and let God sort them out" or "If you're here, you're GUILTY!".
"
Beat me to it. May I also suggest "Nuke the whales."
I've been called once. The first time the accused took one look at the jury pool and changed his plea to guilty. The second, I just wasn't picked.
A necessary inconvenience of our system.
No, my favorite is to tell them that you have been waiting for 47 years to finally be on a jury, and you'll be a great asset to the court because you can tell a person's guilt or innocence by JUST LOOKING AT THEM!!!!!!
That'll teach 'em!
I once was put on a 3 week long trial and saw some horrible things. Things that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy, if I had one! Talk about post-tramatic stress!
People can really be cruel to one another.
wyatt Wrote:
...prosecuters and right minds...is everything political?
"
not political at all I just look like an unreformed Hells Angel :)
Hap, I got called after 45+ yrs of never being called, and then got hit twice within two years, the min. in ID to be picked again. Both times were a bust, being cases that should have never gone to court but should have probably gone into mediation instead. A waste of time, but maybe I'll get lucky the next time here in OR. Both cases lasted all of one day.
......bob,..the question was..called for jury duty,....not call for jury trial....
Wyatt, these were not grand juries to decide to go to court. It is just my opinion that there were substantive issues being decided, legally or otherwise.
wyatt Wrote:
...footster....I was sued once, by a tennet, who wrote me a check for the move in rent + deposit on a closed account. I didnt press charges, just let him make it up in the rent over time. "
Should have been the first clue. Why did you let him move in if his deposit bounced?
Oh suck it up and go do your duty...no more crying, and excuses.
It's your civic duty!
I was on two trials about 16 years ago. It was an interesting experience. If called again I'd do it in a heartbeat, unless it was a hardship.
My wife has been on a jury duty call list for almost three months, and the closest she got was called in three times only to find that the case was dismissed or the DA was sick. Monday is her last day "on call", and they didn't call her in.
A friend of mine was on jury duty about 6 years ago and while serving he got in a conversation with some official who told him something she probably wasn't supposed to. She said that if a jury summons comes via regular mail you can just toss it. If they don't send it certified, there's no way to prove you got it.
About a month later he was sent a summons via regular mail for federal jury duty, and tossed it. He never heard another word about it.
Ummm....this said, if I were you Hap I'd do it above board and just contact them to tell them as a small business owner it's a hardship.
don4975 Wrote:
It's your civic duty!
"
No, no that's where you've got it wrong, my civic duty is to keep LBCs on the road, I do my duty everyday :) Na, I just wish ole judge knew what it was like to pull a 6 and 3/4 day week, then he'd be glad to excuse my ass :)
Ok...your right, keeping LBC's on the road is more important!
I did not know thats what you did for a living...keep up the good work.
I'v been called once for local duty, not chosen to serve.
Twice for Fed. duty. When filling out the froms to send in, it asks what magazines you read. I always list American Handgunner first. I never get to serve.
Steve
MudSnow,...thats a foolish question,....I'm stupid, pay attention.
Bob, I was making a joke...I'll try harder,... hang on to your ticket for the next show.
Do it. Typically lasts around 3 days before you're released.
..we make jokes but it does say something when certain subjects are taboo,although I cannot think of a better way to do it.
My question is what can be done about overzelous prosecuters?
...my next question is how do I turn off this GD spellcheck thing.. I don't need this crap today...every other %#* word.
OK, here's the update. Once I got into the jury pool room, I planned on wieghting the the whole deal out, if people pleaded to the judge to get excused of duty for conditions like mine, I would too, if not, I would suck it and do my duty, well I sucked it up and am doing my duty, in the next 30 minutes I was chosen with 24 other jurors to go up to civil trial for jury selection, loe and behold, I was chosen for the jury. Even though I wanted to get out of this for obvious reasons ( my one man business is sitting there at a standstill) if I've got to serve, they might as well get some good out of me. Short story this trial is so damn boring, I can hardly stay awake, the freaking lawyer are babies, and the poor plantiff's baby lawyers are complete dumbasses, now the kid on the defense is a fireball and pretty slick, I enjoy watching him do his thing. I guess I got lucky, as another group went up for jury selection after us, and they were being selected for a murder trial, which can last longer than a week. We should finish up civil trial this morning, and then we all get thrown back in the jury pool.
Well, Hap, you're being a good citizen, and at least the defendant will get a fair shake with people like you judging them.
Were I on trial - civil or criminal - I would like to think the jurors wanted to do a good and fair assessment of the case, regardless of the ability of the lawyers.
Montrose Wrote:
Were I on trial - civil or criminal - I would like to think the jurors wanted to do a good and fair assessment of the case, regardless of the ability of the lawyers.
"
Both of the trials I was a juror on were so confusing and muddled that in spite of everyone's best intentions we didn't know up from down. The defense lawyers did all they could do to muddy the water and create confusion. The prosecutors weren't zealous; they seemed uninformed, inexperienced, and ill prepared.
In one case all the jurors *believed* the defendant was guilty, but we had to really struggle to figure out how we could justify a guilty verdict through all our confusion and unanswered questions. We went for a lesser charge, as there were several to choose from.
In the other trial I was the only juror who thought the defendant was guilty, but I guess there was reasonable doubt....so he got off. Through a mutual friend who I later discovered worked with the defendant, I found out he was in fact guilty as sin....and he still had the balls to go after the city and get $30k for false arrest, etc.
Our company/corporate lawyer told me when I was called to just shave, get a hair cut, wear a suit and tie, and act intelligent when I appeared. The plaintiffs' and defendants' lawyers will throw you out right away. They don't want smart, normal, people with good sense on juries for their clients.
Yes, it worked.
Well I can talk about it now, since it's over. It was a civil trial, a guy suing for being a victim in a rear fender bender, after the accident he had some neck soreness, but later after about $3k in medical claims to be 100% back to normal, then hurt his neck again 4 years after the wreck, working out at the gym, and claimed the injury was originally caused from the auto accident. The plantiff's lawyers were terrible, the defense lawyer was great. Bottom line he was hoping for a $150K, we gave him $6860. I learned one thing for sure from all this, you put your fate in the hands of 12 individuals, and anything can happen. Our jury fore person was a idiot, she couldn't lead a horse to water, couldn't call for a vote, naturally I had to take over, imagine that :) if I had not, we'd still be there. I think about 9 of us would have awarded the guy $10K, he deserved that much, but three of the jurors didn't want to give him anything. One juror really pissed me off, and trust me, I let here have it, she was the final person I had to convince to make a decision, she stated she had moral problems with civil trials, which pissed me off to no end , since the judge clearly asked before the jury was selected did anyone have a problem with this type of tirial. What did I learn the most from all this is about 6 out of 10 people are fairly level headed and pocess some common sense, and the other 4 are are complete idiots taking up space on this planet.
...and you get to do it all over again for the rest of the week!
Speedracer Wrote:
<snip> What did I learn the most from all this is about 6 out of 10 people are fairly level headed and pocess some common sense, and the other 4 are are complete idiots taking up space on this planet.
"
ah, humanity.
I had similar experiences on a DUI jury trial I sat on several years ago.
They set me free for the rest of the week :) Well looking back on it, I got to serve on a jury, do my civic duty, and feel good about that. However I'm good not to be called again for another 47 years :)
Good thing you didn't get caught playing "hang-man" with the other jurors in the jury box!
:)
Around here they select juries a bit different. They will have five or six cases to try at a time. Instead of calling a jury pool for each one, they call just one big pool. When you get refused for one case you go to the next case and go through the wait and questions all over again. Sometimes this goes on for a couple of weeks. Most of the time you spend standing up in the courthouse hall waiting for your name to be called. No sitting and waiting in the courtroom. They will call 150 people but have -parking space for maybe 20
I can't complain that much really, you have a covered parking garage, they validate your parking, I drove the MGB everyday. When I got picked for the civil trial, they brought us as much coffee, tea, soda, and water as you could drink, the judge fed us real good, ordered food from all the "cool" places downtown. The baliffs wait on you hand and foot, hell even took us outside for smoke breaks. As far as the jury pool they call in about 200 to begin with, Monday everybody comes in, but after that if you're not on trial, you just call in to see if you have been selected for possible jury, they narrow it down to about 25-35 depending on if it's cvil or criminal, and if you don't hear your name on the automated message, you don't even come in, naturally my name came up at every call back with is supposely a lottery. A guy who served with me on Monday and Tuesday on the civil trial never got called agin, so he was done after Tuesday.
I guess from what I hear about other areas, they did a real good job of handling this ordeal, and try their best not to inconvienence you anymore than they have to. All in all, it very well run deal, I was impressed at what a good job they did.
Hey, some time goverment works :)
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