Fuck Jury Duty!
- Thread starter makethatgreen
- Start date
Wait, you mean we're innocent until proven guilty? I forget who the lawyer was, but he made a good point. If you're in court defending yourself, you're already looked at as being most likely guilty - otherwise why are you there?
PS - Have yet to be summoned, but will be interesting.
I didn't complain, don't remember enough about those cases to say anything, but the reason I got out of mine was because it was for a double murder in which the corpses were burned to nothing months earlier and had been all over the news...
burned bodies + double murder + crazy lady + full time college + full time work + was broke as shit + motherfucking jury duty at $5/day = FUCK THAT SHIT!
The vast majority of cases involve parties suing each other in civil court.
I was chosen for two such cases: one involving two men who were on their way home from a strip club, that got into a car accident. The friend in the passenger's seat who was injured was suing the other.
The second case involved a young girl who was misbehaving in a department store, got hurt by falling on something, so the parents were suing the store.
In both cases, the jury was chosen to force them to settle. We never actually made it to court, as the jurors were just a bargaining chip. We sat around sequestered for a few hours, then told to go home.
Why couldn't they have made these deals without dragging people through the system? When you see how things really work on the inside you get kind of cynical about the whole process.
The ONLY good thing about having a criminal record - although I'd gladly give up the felonies in exchange for a years worth of jury duty.
That's interesting. It's very different here, usually juries are for criminal cases, sometimes inquests. Civil cases using juries aren't as common.
Sounds ridiculous that they pay $5/day! Is that a federal thing or does it vary state by state?
Here they ask for proof of earnings and compensate according, there are some limits (and it'll never be ideal for people like us where the relationship between time and income is not straightforward) but overall it seems pretty fair.
I must be like the only person ever who was actually EXCITED the first time she finally got a jury duty summons! Seriously, all of my friends had gotten them (and got out of attending), and I'd been DYING to serve!!
Not only did I happily go--and even dealt with all of my professors trying to penalize me for my absence that day because they couldn't understand why I wouldn't even try to get out of it--but I was even more excited to get selected for a case! Then a few days later, I got a call saying the matter had been settled out of court.
Alas... I was so looking forward to serving on a jury!
Maybe I'll get called again soon now that I'm heading back to the States...
Not only did I happily go--and even dealt with all of my professors trying to penalize me for my absence that day because they couldn't understand why I wouldn't even try to get out of it--but I was even more excited to get selected for a case! Then a few days later, I got a call saying the matter had been settled out of court.
Alas... I was so looking forward to serving on a jury!Maybe I'll get called again soon now that I'm heading back to the States...
a benefit of having kids.
section on the back of the summons where it states you are the primary caregiver for the child. Get out of summons for at least 18 years.
section on the back of the summons where it states you are the primary caregiver for the child. Get out of summons for at least 18 years.
That shit actually worked when I got called. Told them flat out that I would do whatever the fuck I had to do to get out of there as fast as possible.
jury duty is a form of involuntary labor (slavery). many times, people may sit on cases whose importance to society may be less than the value of what they could be contributing otherwise in their day to day jobs. in a nutshell its a mis-allocation of scarce resources.
i think if i were called to jury duty (doesn't exist in costa rica), i'd just say the defendant was innocent. if they're gonna fuck up my day, at least let em pay for it.