Jury Duty

[Lily Valley]

I know y'all can't say much.  I'm going in for the first time for Criminal Court.  I have three dates for the jury pool.  What the hell can I expect? 

 The online information is written by morons.  The correspondence is by mail for obvious reasons.  I can't find some of the papers.

 I'm having a genuine Gen X schedule vs. govt. calendar meltdown.  By this I mean they can't or won't give me a schedule for the month.  This sucks for me.

Please share anything that you can about jury duty.

[ThinkerX]

Been there, done this...several times - most recently last May.

 

First, if you don't show up, its a bench warrant.  I imagine you have enough problems already without that.

Second, bring that book you've been meaning to read.  Much of the process is boring as it gets.

You can expect to be herded into a fair sized room with the other jurors and given a short form to fill out.  Unless really hung over, that won't take more than a minute or two. 

Then you get to watch a short film.  Boring, but in an informative sort of way.

After that you wait.  (This is where the book comes in.)  Because, in the background, the legal beagle types are trying to cut last minutes deals.  And there is a fair chance they'll succeed.  (Call it 50-50.)  If that happens, the jury clerk will come into the room and tell you to go home.  If it goes to trial, though, they'll divvy your group up - maybe alphabetical.  More waiting while they interview the jurors.  If your lucky, you'll get called quick like.  Fair chance you'll be dismissed on some trivial technicality.  Might be a peremptory challenge, which is totally arbitrary. 

If for some reason they like you enough to put you on a jury, then things get really long and boring.  You get to listen to testimony from witnesses, cops, or whoever, except the lawyers will be challenging about every tenth word (ok, maybe not that bad.)  Chancdes are you will be told you did not hear some of the things you did hear.  Then comes the deliberations, where you and the other jurors are given a list of the charges, written in very precise and almost incomprehensible legalese (think of it as an obscure scientific dialect).  You and the other jurors get to debate these points one by one.   You vote on each point of legalese individually. 

That's Petit jury.  Grand Jury is different, much, much more interesting.

 

Oh, and DO NOT forget to call in each evening to catch the recording that tells you when to show up.  (forgot to include that with the preliminary stuff.)  Usually, you'll only sit on one jury, but sometimes you'll wind up on a second towards the end of the month, which sucks, because that can carry over into the next month.

 

[ThinkerX]

Rereading your post: there is no set schedule (at least in my corner of the country.) It's an 'on call' sort of thing, except if you have to go in the next day, it screws your week up.  You should have a number that will go to an answering machine, updated daily, telling you when your group is supposed to show up.  This 'on call' / 'call in' bit is why so many people try to get out of jury duty.

 

Hmmm...my understanding is you have a DUI/Traffic Record issues.  Unless they're desperate to fill the ranks, they might get rid of you right away in that case.  They don't like people with more than very minor traffic violations.

[Rubies & Jade]

That's Petit jury.  Grand Jury is different, much, much more interesting.

 

For all the times I have been called in to Petit jury, I've never been on a jury. I've sat there for two days (bring two books if you read fast!) and then was excused.

but the last time I was called in--some years ago--I had to go to Brooklyn Grand Jury. I thought it was horrible, not interesting! case after case after case, every day. terrible stuff... sexual assaults, knife and gun attacks, and a lot of drug related cases. just an endless parade of horrible stories. and a quarter of the other people on the Grand Jury clearly didn't understand the role of a Grand Jury vs a petit jury which made for some awful arguments amongst ourselves. It was all rather depressing. but I was lucky I was only there for 2 weeks... later I met some people that had to go in 1 day a week or a month for a year. ugh!  I read the entire Harry Potter series that two weeks though, in the 10 minutes or so between each case. 

[SeanF]

I'm not sure how the US experience varies from the English.  I did it two years ago.

I was given a two week slot.  I had to be available over that period.  So, plan nothing, during that time.

As Thinker X says, bring a book, or more than one.  You'll have a lot of time on your hands, waiting to be allocated a case.

Make sure you take plenty of notes during the case.  Don't rush to a conclusion, when you retire to consider your verdict.  Remember, a person's liberty and reputation depends on the decision you take.  You should appoint someone to chair your discussions.  Take an initial vote, and then go round the table giving your reasons for convicting or acquitting. Then take another vote.  Keep  taking votes, until you reach a unanimous verdict (I don't know if US law allows majority verdicts).

And, in England, you can discuss the case all you like with your fellow jurors, but you absolutely must not discuss it with anybody else, nor must you research it over the internet.  Again, I don't know if US law differs.

[Maya Mia]

I was just called two weeks ago.  First all 3 - 4 hundred of us went to a room, had to be there by 8 am.  A judge came in and talked, then we watched a video.  Then they told us to wait.  At 9am, they called 75 people to go to be interviewed for a specific trial.  After that they called groups of 20 for other specific trials.  My name wasn't called.  There were about 5 groups total taken by about 11am.  As they only need 6 for a jury, after each specific case six were chosen, the remaining 14 had to return to the jury room and wait to be called again. After lunch a couple more groups of 20 were called. Some people were called more than once.  Others like me were not called at all.

Finally around 2pm my name was called.  We (21 of us) were herded up to another floor, where we waited in line in the hallway for an hour.  Once we were finally let in the courtroom, the judge first asked some basic questions. Like "do you understand the difference between reasonable doubt and beyond all doubt"  I felt like I was in kindergarden again, with the tone the judge had.    Then the prosecutor asked some questions.  Then the defense asked some questions.  This took about an hour and a half.  As two of the witnesses in the case were police officers, they focused quite a bit on people's impressions about police.  Some of the potential jurors were quite outspoken.  Some were in tears.  Then we were told to go back in the hall for about 20 minutes. Then we were called back in.  And they announced who was selected for the jury.  As it was now 4:55pm, we were allowed to leave afterwards.

Most boring day of my life.

Some things to point out, each state has different rules.  Also, in my county, juries are selected on Mondays for all cases going to trial for the week.  So the trial that I was interviewed for was scheduled to actually start on Thursday afternoon.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Lily,

Federal Court or local State court?  My last jury duty notice was for Federal Court.  I had to drive to Florence, about an hour from my house, sit in the Courthouse all day and not get picked.  I can't be called for Federal Jury duty for another 3 years.

That was my experience.

[Maya Mia]

 

 

Hmmm...my understanding is you have a DUI/Traffic Record issues.  Unless they're desperate to fill the ranks, they might get rid of you right away in that case.  They don't like people with more than very minor traffic violations.

When we lived in Charlotte, my husband who has a DUI on record was chosen to be in a jury for a DUI case.  So this is not true everywhere.

[Xray the Enforcer]

My experience with jury duty mirrors ThinkerX's (both have been with Petit jury, not Grand jury). Be prepared to sit around and wait. You might get sent to a court room and watch other jurors get empanelled ahead of you, but never be empanelled yourself. If you are empanelled, then you'll be "on call" for the duration of the trial. I remember having to go in for 3 hours one day, then skip two days, then go back in for a full day of testimony. It all depends on the judge's schedule. All told, I was on a jury for two weeks, but only missed maybe four full days of work. 

[Fez]

Earlier this year I had jury duty for the first time. I'd been summoned before, but always got an exemption on account of living 300 or more miles away from where I was still registered to vote. It was state petit jury. There was only one case that day and midway through the court clerk's orientation he was informed that the case had been continued to the following month, so we were all dismissed. My summons had been for three court days, but my name didn't come up the other two, so that was the extent of my jury duty and now I'm set from state jury duty for another two and a half years.

The courthouse is close enough and the weather nice enough that I just walked there, so the whole experience took about two hours. And my state gives a $30 daily per diem for jury duty, which I was able to completely pocket since I didn't have to pay for parking or lunch. Also, because my employer is awesome, I was paid for the whole day and didn't have to charge time.

Very few states require employers to pay employees for time spent on jury duty, but all states require employers to not fire or otherwise punish employees for it.

I honestly wouldn't have minded if the case had moved forward and if I was selected. It was a criminal case, and unlike what TV shows say, those usually only take a day or two. Its the civil cases, particularly fraud cases or cases involving large corporations, that can drag on for weeks or months. I think it would've been an interesting experience.

[zelticgar]

I've only been called for Jury Duty one time. I was able to talk my way out of it by explaining to the judge my wife was 38 weeks into her pregnancy (26 actually but who's counting?). I was number 185 out of 200 so I did get a chance to sit through about 50 people. After they got 4 or 5 people on the jury they asked if anyone had a reason to leave so i raised my hand and talked to the judge and he let me go. The trial they were hearing was related to an assault on a police officer and drug charges. From what I could tell they were selecting people based on what they wore. Anyone dressed up as a complete slob got put right through. There was one guy that could barely speak english and he got right on the jury.

My advice, dress well and speak in complete sentences when they screen you. They will probably pass you over. 

[MercenaryChef]

I have been excused every single time.  Three times in two different states. 

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

I've served on three Magistrate's Court (small claims) juries.

[SeanF]

Earlier this year I had jury duty for the first time. I'd been summoned before, but always got an exemption on account of living 300 or more miles away from where I was still registered to vote. It was state petit jury. There was only one case that day and midway through the court clerk's orientation he was informed that the case had been continued to the following month, so we were all dismissed. My summons had been for three court days, but my name didn't come up the other two, so that was the extent of my jury duty and now I'm set from state jury duty for another two and a half years.

The courthouse is close enough and the weather nice enough that I just walked there, so the whole experience took about two hours. And my state gives a $30 daily per diem for jury duty, which I was able to completely pocket since I didn't have to pay for parking or lunch. Also, because my employer is awesome, I was paid for the whole day and didn't have to charge time.

Very few states require employers to pay employees for time spent on jury duty, but all states require employers to not fire or otherwise punish employees for it.

I honestly wouldn't have minded if the case had moved forward and if I was selected. It was a criminal case, and unlike what TV shows say, those usually only take a day or two. Its the civil cases, particularly fraud cases or cases involving large corporations, that can drag on for weeks or months. I think it would've been an interesting experience.

That's one big difference with England and Wales.  We don't have juries at all for civil cases (apart from a handful of libel cases) only criminal.

I found my own trial very interesting (the whole thing lasted two and a half days).

We have similar employment laws.  No one can be dismissed for jury service, but employers are not required to pay for time spent serving on a jury.

WRT compensation, we are in theory compensated for lost wages, but only up to a maximum of c.£300 per week.  Anything you earn above that is lost.

[Lany Freelove Cassandra]

The waiting around thing is pretty common.  I was selected on 2 juries last time, but then the Defense dismissed me.

we were a court room, they had the prospective jurors stand as they asked several questions.  I had 2 that I stood for: if they had worked in law enforcement or associated with it, and if they or a member of their family was a victim of a violent crime. I knew I was going to be a no-go.

So then they took us not on that trial to another court room and did the same thing.  I was once again seated in the jury area and dismissed by the defense.

I suspect I will never get to serve on jury.  I was disappointed as I thought it would be an interesting experience, and in spite of my past, I know I can be very objective.

[JonSnow4President]

I've never been on one (only been eligible to vote for a little under 7 years, which suddenly makes that seem longer ago), but my mother has.  It was for a gang-related murder in the Memphis area.  They even sequestered the jury, with the trial lasting through my parent's 20th wedding anniversary and the day I returned from college for Christmas my Freshman year.  

The worst part in her mind was she was an alternate, and wasn't even allowed to decide on the case (and of course didn't know she was an alternate early on).  

[Robin Of House Hill]

I've done jury duty several times.  It was everything from arriving there, not be selected for a jury and being told thanks, you are all done, to a one day criminal trial that resulted in a very contentious hung jury, to the last one, where I was the foreperson in a criminal trial that lasted a week, where there were three defendants charged with 151 counts, boxes and boxes of evidence.  Deliberations took another week.

Here, in a nutshell, are my impressions.  Prosecutors assigned to low profile cases are pretty boring.  Some judges are pretty cool.  The longer the trial and deliberations go on, the more likely you are to want to see the attorneys and most of the jurors convicted.

[S John]

I got it in DC one time.  I went and signed in and then sat in a large room with about 100 other people waiting to be called up.  After about an hour they announced that they had enough people and that everyone else could leave.  Even though it was 8 in the morning I had already taken the day off for jury duty so it was basically a free day off.  Don't remember what I did, but I definitely didn't go back to work.  

[DreamSongs]

I got selected for a jury and then sent to lunch.  The case was bargained while we were gone and we were thanked and dismissed once we returned.

[TrackerNeil]

I get called for jury duty all the time, and I often get picked for trials. (I'm at two murder trials and counting.) Philadelphia has done a pretty good job of making the experience as clear and painless as possible. They have folks who are willing to help every step of the way, so you never have to wonder, "What do I do now?" So there's someone to give you the forms, to hand you a pencil, what to do with the forms when they are complete, etc. 

I don't know where you live, but Lily, but in the City of Brotherly Love nobody dresses all that well for jury duty, nor have I ever seen a judge object to what someone was wearing. That being said, I usually dress business casual, because I don't want to be that guy that a cranky judge singles out for criticism that day. 

This only works in Philadelphia, but the courts are located a block from the Reading Terminal, and jurors get 10% off most of what they buy there. It's a great place to have lunch, so whenever I have the duty I look forward to tasty food and a good book.