I'll be reporting to the county courthouse tomorrow for jury duty, so I will be largely incommunicado tomorrow at least, and longer than that if I get picked for a trial. (The first time I was called in, they hadn't implemented the one-day/one-trial rule, and I ended up down there for close to four weeks serving on two long trials, including one for first-degree murder.)

Feel free to discuss creative ways of evading jury duty.

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Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.

Never fails: Lose bowel control. Frequently. Answer all yes or no questions with "Depends".

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[Dr. Horrible]___________________________[Penny]
Listen close to everybody's heart________And you believe there's good in everybody's heart
And hear that breaking sound_____________Keep it safe and sound
Hopes and dreams are shattering apart____With hope you can do your part
And crashing to the ground_______________To turn a life around

When I got mine a couple years ago, it turned out that court business was so slow, they sent us all away after about an hour of orientation.

If you're Canadian, become a lawyer. Apparently they're ineligible for jury duty (along with police officers, firefighters, and a whole host of others). Now, the essential service people makes sense (they need to be providing their essential services), but I'd rather like to have someone who understands the law on my jury instead of Joe Sixpack. Anyone know why lawyers can't serve on a jury?

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Quaeso quousque humi defixa tua mens erit? Nonne aspicis, quae in templa veneris?

The potential of undue influence on the rest of the jury, I would imagine, in the style of fallacy of authority. May as well have a trial by judge in that case.

Couple that with the likelihood of professional ties and/or rivalries with the lawyers and/or judge, and it's just a recipe for trouble.

__________________
[Dr. Horrible]___________________________[Penny]
Listen close to everybody's heart________And you believe there's good in everybody's heart
And hear that breaking sound_____________Keep it safe and sound
Hopes and dreams are shattering apart____With hope you can do your part
And crashing to the ground_______________To turn a life around

I believe that is true in the US too. A friend whose husband is a lawyer told me that even working in a law office (secretary, clerk, etc.) is sufficient.

I've only done jury duty once and ended up only serving on a single trial, a one-day long trial for robbery that took us about 5 minutes to find guilty (it was pretty open and shut). I found the whole thing fascinating and would love to do it again, though I won't want a trial that lasted weeks or months.

One thing I found interesting was that when the potential jurors were being instructed as to the process, the judge pointed out several times that it was not exactly like TV trials - they particularly mentioned the program Law & Order. When either the prosecutor or the defense attorney was questioning us ( I don't remember which), one of the asked how often you watched L&O.

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

conflict of interest? can't be considered unbiased?

Showing up in uniform (military/ems/police/fire) worked pretty well for my wife. Of course, being called to testify in a different case (different call out) worked pretty well, too.

Answer questions intelligently, thoughtfully, give examples, etc. I've been called up 3 times, and rejected all three times when I was able to show I know something about the newtonian physics (drunk driving/crash for two of them) or medicine (abuse). Needn't be much (can't be, in my case ) Defense attorney vetoed me each time.

In the US, you can ask your boss for a 'vital need' letter - the court can still reject it, but it's worth a try.

Finally, shed 20 years (in my case), join the military - like the Coast Guard or Navy.. make sure your unit is going to deploy during the time of your jury call up

I snipped some stuff, because this one line reminded me of something I learned recently.

No matter what you see on TV, in the US, you do NOT need to wait 24 or 48 hours to report an adult missing. My search and rescue group found this out when we got involved in looking for an alzheimer's patient (who is still missing, months later, unfortunately. His car was tracked to a spot several hundred miles away, and he was seen there with his car, but the trail ends there, too). Anyway, one of the things we learned talking to the police was that you can report somebody missing immediately (not just kids or alzheimer's patients, either)

Just thought I'd share that. If you think somebody is missing, DO NOT WAIT. The cops would much rather you be wrong than start to search possibly too late. So would those of us in search groups.

Ah, not a bad point. Still, it would kind of bother me to be tried by "my peers." Have you listened to some of the people out there?

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Quaeso quousque humi defixa tua mens erit? Nonne aspicis, quae in templa veneris?

LOL - well, it would depend on whether I was guilty or not. If I'm guilty, then the dumber the jury the better (assuming my lawyer is good, of course). If I'm Innocent (and I am), I'd think I'd rather have fairly intelligent folk on my jury.

Just a knee jerk reaction...


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Justice is supposed to be blind, not stupid

The last time I got called up, I spiked my hair, wore chains, jewelry, sunglasses, and a ripped-up Iron Maiden t-shirt. Seemed to help with my dismissal from the pool.

Why would you want to avoid jury service?

I would think that the relatively intelligent and enlightened membership of this BB would see some value in performing that civic duty.

If you were on trial, would you really want a jury composed of people who couldn't avoid an obligation they find onerous? Wouldn't you want some smart, skeptical, and open-minded jurors?

I've been called to one-day, one-trial duty three times but only served on one jury. It was a DUI case, and we convicted (didn't buy the Nyquil excuse). I wasn't particularly happy about giving somebody a criminal record, but on the other hand I don't like sharing the road with impaired drivers.

Really, shirking jury duty is like refusing to register and vote.

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Bring back Firefly!

"It is quite clear that Occam's razor does not sharpen in your pyramid." (Nicolas)

"Still, a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest." (Paul Simon)

Absolutely. As I said, I would like to do it more, both for my civic duty and because it is so interesting.

But, as to the last sentence, look at the percentage of people who vote.

Wolverine, we want photographic proof of your last statement.

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

My dad got out of it because my mom was having surgery....But I think it was a rare occurrence.

This was some years ago... if only I'd thought to do so.

In my state, a situation of that kind would be grounds for a postponement, but not a cancellation.

I should have qualified my little scolding above. In places where the one-day-or-one-trial technique is not used, I can understand someone trying to avoid several weeks of pool duty. Also, I understand that Grand Jury service is also a long stretch -- anyone ever done that?

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Bring back Firefly!

"It is quite clear that Occam's razor does not sharpen in your pyramid." (Nicolas)

"Still, a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest." (Paul Simon)

Well, the trial for which I served (child molestation) lasted just under two weeks including selection. The one immediately following (another jury trial) was scheduled to last six months.

When I learned that, I was very relieved that I was selected for the shorter trial. The timing was a bit of a hassle in terms of work, but nothing like a six-month stretch would have been.

__________________
[Dr. Horrible]___________________________[Penny]
Listen close to everybody's heart________And you believe there's good in everybody's heart
And hear that breaking sound_____________Keep it safe and sound
Hopes and dreams are shattering apart____With hope you can do your part
And crashing to the ground_______________To turn a life around

Well, my mom was having her surgery in California, and my dad flew out and was there for 5 days (there were surgery complications), I think he was only assigned 3 days of duty, but I don't remember for sure.

I was told anybody with a demonstrable background in science, medicine, or especially probability is almost automatically exempt from jury duty. The first thing the lawyers do is get a copy of all the potential jurors' transcripts and weed out anybody who has a solid enough background in anything related to the case that they can't be easily tricked.

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I met this wonderful girl at Macy's. She was buying clothes and I was putting Slinkies on the escalator.
-Steven Wright



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