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Jury duty
Non-Beer Discussion by FLASHPRO
Anyone ever have to serve on a trial as a juror? I have been summoned to jury duty 5 times in my life, including this Monday. I booked a flight back to my job location on Monday night, assuming that I'd call in the day before and find out I'm not needed, or that I wouldn't get picked for a trial. Well WTF, out of a 200 people in the room, I got selected for the first panel of 45 candidates. Then, with less than a 20% chance, I was picked as juror #5 for a civil case. The good news is I didn't have to sit around all day in the jury hall. The bad news is I wasted a plane ticket. The trial ran until the end of the day today, so now I can talk about it. I have to say that is was really interesting and I'm glad I had the opportunity to experience first hand the judicial system in our country. Much of it was just like on TV, but with a lot more behind the scenes rules. It also got pretty intense and emotional. We ended up siding with the defendant, but had we seen it the plaintiff's way, it could easily have been hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars in damages. I was pretty confident with my choice, but knowing that you're making such a huge decision between two people whose lives could change forever, it makes you nervous! One of the 8 jurors didn't agree with the verdict, but she only wanted to award a very small amount of money. Anyway, the plaintiff had been in 4 motor vehicle accidents in 12 years, and sued in the last 3 of those (including this one). The defendant was only 17 at the time and didn't even show up for the trial. His lawyer specializes in representing insurance agencies haha. The plaintiff's attorney is a personal injury lawyer. I did some research after the trial online and found out that the previous accident was settled before going to court, so I don't know how she made out on that one. The big hole in this trial was no proof that that accident caused any injury to the woman. There was a car in between the woman and the kid. The only photo given as evidence by the plaintiff was of the kid's car. We didn't even know what kind of car the middle one was. The defense managed to find a crappy photo of the woman's car at the body shop that showed nothing more than some scratches. She was already on disability from the accident 4 years prior. Three doctors gave testimony as expert witnesses, but none of them seemed to jive and one was very unbelievable. They each charged $3000-4000 to give their opinion, and the one doc said he does them 3-5 times a month! He was so biased it was ridiculous. At one point he said "I just threw your client a bone" to the defense. And then there were the old officers sitting next to me that kept talking about what they were going to eat for lunch and how hot the judge was.
12 years ago
FRETWALKER
4773
I've been on a jury once, on a DUI case in 1976. Driver jumped the curb and hit a pole in a suburban neighborhood in broad daylight. He claimed he'd had only 2 beers, and refused the breathalyzer. If he'd only had two, the breathalyzer might have helped him... as it was, he didn't have a plausible excuse for losing control. Took us 5 minutes to convict him. So quick, we didn't even get a free meal out of it! What does jury duty pay, these days?
FARGINGBASTIGE6
27279
I got jury duty once. I was about 21 or so and had a job working in the south Alabama heat and my jury duty was in July, thus I was looking forward to some time off – in an air-conditioned building with pay from my regular job and whatever jury duty paid – seems like it was about 5 bucks a day or some such nonsense. I actually got picked for the jury on a murder case – old man about 70 years old beat his wife to death with a metal folding chair for something stupid like forgetting to iron his shirt or something. Pretty graphic photos from the scene… I mean he didn’t just hit her with the chair; he beat her like she owed him money. It took about 5 minutes for deliberations. The defense was basically, “but he’s an old man”.
My county pays $9 a day for the first 3 days and $25 each day after that. My employer will pay me 8 hours a day up to 80 hours per year. The only problem is I normally work 10-11 hours a day for 50-52 hours a week. Plus I'm stuck home today using vacation time because I have to fly to get there. During voir dire of the jury selection they said to stand up if staying for the trial would cause hardship, but I didn't know exactly what qualifies in their minds. I figured there are a lot of other people making a lot less money a day who won't get paid at all, so it didn't seem fair for me to try to get out of it. I'm glad I wasn't on a criminal case related to rape or murder. It was uncomfortable enough listening to the wife and husband talking about the impacts to their sex life. And it's not that we didn't believe a lot of what they were saying. It just wasn't a proven fact that the cause was this 4th accident.
quote: Originally posted by fretwalker
What does jury duty pay, these days?
SUDSMCDUFF
62727
Just say you are prejustice against all races and religions... that or admit to being a unreliable drunk that needs to drink constantly to live... No jury duty.
BLUESANDBARBQ
74923
[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boO4RowROiw"]We Don't Want the Irish![/url]
Been summoned three times. 1st time I was 18 and a senior in high school, needless to say I was one of the first to be dismissed. 2nd time I was chosen to be the 2nd alternate, so I got to sit with the jury during a three day trial. Right before the fourth day the case was settled out of court. Being an alternate was pretty cool since I got to take part, but likely wouldn't have had to partake in rendering any sort of decision. 3rd time I had a personal conflict with the case at hand and was dismissed due to my religious beliefs. It may sound like a pain in the ass, but serving honestly for jury duty is important and should be treated so.
Steve Martin was interviewed on NPR this morning, promoting his new book of tweets http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1455512478/stevmart-20. One of his funny bits was tweets from jury duty. OR, as was reported via Twitter: "Susan Ramsey #8207; @SusanInDSM Great @NPR interview with @SteveMartin this morning about #twitter. Laughed all the way to work. #juryduty #toofunny" Note: Steve Martin is @SteveMartinToGo