Summoned for jury duty

[Jazzy]

Have you ever been summoned for jury duty? (If so, what was it like?)

 

[Forgiven1]

Yes I have been. When you go, they put you in a room and assign you a number. The judge and lawyers come and ask question. One is if there is any reason why you can't serve. After a few questions along that line they will ask questions that has to do with the case and the lawyers can say yes or no to that person depending on the answer and at the end of this, they lawyers decide who they want as jurors.

Last time I had to go, I had just had a cardiac event which was serious and was recovering from. This was during the reason why I couldn't serve part and was dismissed, At another one, I was still there through the end but did not make the final cut.

 

[tango]

My experience is that the entire system acts as if every second of the court's time is priceless and the juror's time is worthless.

I turned up, registered my presence, and then sat reading a book for hours before I was called. I heard one case that ran for a week, then another one that was such a weak case we reached a unanimous verdict within less than 10 minutes. The second case I heard was with most of the same jurors from the first case, with a couple of people swapped out. The new people had sat for most of two weeks, expected to turn up every day but not actually used for most of the two weeks they were expected to serve.

It's easy to see why people don't want to do jury duty, especially if an employer isn't required to pay them and what the courts offer is a lame substitute for a regular wage. You can hardly blame people on a tightly balanced budget to be reluctant to end up taking a heavy loss for doing jury duty.

I was also alarmed at the notion that hearing a court case may expose jurors to distressing material, but that the court basically washed its hands of you once you were done. Their advice was that if you found the court case distressing you should seek counselling. That's it. No support, no care, nothing.

I found the process interesting, but don't know that I'd rush to volunteer for it.

 

[Messy]

My experience is that the entire system acts as if every second of the court's time is priceless and the juror's time is worthless.

I turned up, registered my presence, and then sat reading a book for hours before I was called. I heard one case that ran for a week, then another one that was such a weak case we reached a unanimous verdict within less than 10 minutes. The second case I heard was with most of the same jurors from the first case, with a couple of people swapped out. The new people had sat for most of two weeks, expected to turn up every day but not actually used for most of the two weeks they were expected to serve.

It's easy to see why people don't want to do jury duty, especially if an employer isn't required to pay them and what the courts offer is a lame substitute for a regular wage. You can hardly blame people on a tightly balanced budget to be reluctant to end up taking a heavy loss for doing jury duty.

I was also alarmed at the notion that hearing a court case may expose jurors to distressing material, but that the court basically washed its hands of you once you were done. Their advice was that if you found the court case distressing you should seek counselling. That's it. No support, no care, nothing.

I found the process interesting, but don't know that I'd rush to volunteer for it.

I saw a bit from Johnny Depp's case. Those poor ppl. The judge gets paid, but they don't and they have to do the judging. I hope he gave em some extra afterwards.

 

[NewCreation435]

I have twice. The first time it was pre pandemic and they called all of us in at one time and swore us in and then told us the lawyers settled and dismissed us. The second time we spent two days waiting in jury room until they finally told us that they had their jury pool and we could go. At least in the second situation they had good snacks