Jury Duty Strategy

[packrat44]

Lawyers seem to go to extraordinary lengths to avoid having military veterans on juries.

Not true in my case. Now called 7 times and was picked as a juror 5 times.

 

[Milton]

Lawyers seem to go to extraordinary lengths to avoid having military veterans on juries.

Martha, other lawyers, any idea if that's really the case? Why?

There are any number of theories about what sort of person is likely to have what sort of prejudices. As with all generalizations and stereotypes, those theories are usually half-baked and subject to many exceptions.

Criminal defence counsel might think that ex-military jurors are more likely than not deferential to authority (= too inclined to believe in the judgment of the police). Similarly, plaintiff-side personal injury lawyers might think a veteran is naturally inclined to take the side of big corporations.

 

[deserat]

Summoned twice -once in AZ and once in CA - in AZ, got chosen and then they put us in a room and told us the case had just been settled - we were free to go home. In CA, the pool was huge - why? A gang member had tried to kill and merely maimed someone - we were warned that if we were on the jury, that there had been talk of retribution - the gangmembers were standing out and about in the waiting area - I had to go on a business trip the next week and the judge asked if anyone couldn't be on a jury for 2-3 months - I raised my hand and was told to go. I don't know if I would have liked being on that particular jury. I had heard they had called close to 1K people to emapnel that jury -wow.

 

[Pete]

Let's amend the constitution and allow for professional jurors. Perhaps they could be spun randomly out of some computer data base. They should be paid enough to remain honest. It would probably give the US economy a boost in worker productivity.

 

[Nords]

Here ya go, Al, if you act fast you may get away with this before everyone tries it:
http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USN1145410420080611

SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian drugs trial lasting more than three months and costing taxpayers over A$1 million ($947,000) has been aborted after a number of jurors were found to have spent up to half the time playing Sudoku puzzles.

Sydney District Court Judge Peter Zahra cancelled the trial of two men on drugs conspiracy charges after the jury foreperson admitted that four to five jurors had been playing the addictive number sequence game, local media reported. The judge was alerted after some of the jurors were observed writing their notes vertically, rather than horizontally. The game involves completing a grid of numbers in the correct sequence.

One juror said the game helped them to pay more attention by keeping their mind busy.

"Some of the evidence is rather drawn out and I find it difficult to maintain my attention the whole time," the juror was quoted saying by the Australian Associated Press.

 

[Texas Proud]

Not true in my case. Now called 7 times and was picked as a juror 5 times.

I also have 5 juries.... but I have more than a dozen calls for duty... I got on one jury my second time, but then went many years without getting picked... my last four times I was picked and served on the jury... three of them as foreman....

 

[ziggy29]

I got called a few weeks ago, but wasn't selected for the pool.

It turned out to be a rape trial, which doesn't happen much up here. And with the glacial pace of justice, the offense occurred in December 2005.

And as it turned out, the jury which was seated convicted the accused in a 4-day trial. But at the end of the trial, the foreman confessed to discussing the trial with others and the judge declared a mistrial. Thanks for wasting everyone's time and our county's tax dollars, fella.

 

[packrat44]

SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian drugs trial lasting more than three months and costing taxpayers over A$1 million ($947,000) has been aborted after a number of jurors were found to have spent up to half the time playing Sudoku puzzles.

Sydney District Court Judge Peter Zahra cancelled the trial of two men on drugs conspiracy charges after the jury foreperson admitted that four to five jurors had been playing the addictive number sequence game, local media reported. The judge was alerted after some of the jurors were observed writing their notes vertically, rather than horizontally. The game involves completing a grid of numbers in the correct sequence.

One juror said the game helped them to pay more attention by keeping their mind busy.

"Some of the evidence is rather drawn out and I find it difficult to maintain my attention the whole time," the juror was quoted saying by the Australian Associated Press.



I am surprised the judge did not file charges of Contempt of Court against those particular jurors and also seek damages for cost incurred.

 

[Rambler]

I had a summons sent to my address about 8 years ago, but I have been in Asia for 9 years now. By dad wrote that I was out of the country on assignment for megacorp. They haven't sent one since.

When I FIRE, perhaps after a year or so, I will volunteer for jury duty, if I haven't received a summons by then. Why? Because I feel it is a duty to be shared by all of us, and I want to do my part.

T-Al, with 85,000 people in the county, that would mean around 50-55k adults. That means that if each one was called up once a year, there are about 230 people called up every day. Either there is a lot of crime in your small county, or there are a lot of felons who aren't allowed to serve...Maybe not the nicest neighborhood??

R

 

[Texarkandy]

To avert the "Hey, do your civic duty" responses, I'll first mention that I've done jury duty a number of times. DW and I get called more than seems reasonable for a county with 85,00 residents. It's 35 miles to the court house, and trials are usually only held in the morning hours, so a week of jury duty means 6-7 hours on the road.

But the prospect of jury duty is doubly scary now, since, being retired, I'd have no excuse for getting out of a long trial.

So, I got my jury summons for June 18. I could either:

1. Just go and get it over with, or

2. Get an automatic 90-day deferral.

The advantage of option 2 is that I may have to serve only once every 1 year + 90 days rather than once every year.

The disadvantage of option 2 is that if the new date is inconvenient, I can't change it.

Advice??

DW just got a notice for July 30 - right in the middle of our planned (but not yet booked) 2 week Hawaii vacation.

She just called the clerk & explained the problem - no problem says the clerk & just bumped her off the list. But then again, we live in a small metro area & DW has a way with people that I don't. They'd have probably told me "not no, but .... no"

 

[TromboneAl]

Well, I wasn't seated. It was a trial that was going to last until July 25 !! On the hardship questionnaire I honestly put down that I would need to drive DW to a neighboring city for skin cancer surgery on July 2 and be with her, and that was accepted.

It sure was scary. I would have had to drive 60 miles round trip each day for six weeks. I guess I'm just a wuss, but I still have a knot in my stomach.