Get outta jury duty the hard way

[swords]

There's a guy in Montana who got out of Jury duty with a colorful request, you can see his notarized affidavit here (Rattler where were you on Jan 15th?):

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0430091jury1.html

The profanity has been censored but you can still tell what it says. I had jury duty a year or two ago, it sucked but next time I'll know how to get out of it...

 

[rattler]

that guy is half the state away from me......besides i would never get called to jury duty in Gallatin County....only in Roosevelt County or at the federal court in Great Falls.......ill likely never sit on a jury so long as i work for the paper......most the prosecutors want nothing to do with Montana newspaper ppl cause we often share info and though its a big state i see all the federal stuff cause, well there aint that many ppl here and for the local stuff, it a fairly small community and i tend to know whether the person is likely guilty or innocent before hand cause guess who gets to hear all the rumors? i dont know any newspaper person in the state other than those working at the handful of dailies that have ever served on a jury while they owned/worked for a newspaper.......

 

[seedjar]

I understand if someone can't afford to take time off work, but did he have for be so berserk about it? Reading it I would think he had already appealed several times and not been heard.
~Joe

 

[Ant]

I can understand he can't miss work but wow! Anyway, don't they pay you for taking your time to be in a jury?

 

[rattler]

yeah yah get paid...but it aint much...and if you are running your own business and you are basically your only employee or one of two or 3 ppl.....well being gone for the duration of a trial could be very rough on your bottom line.....it would be very difficult for me to leave my job for more than a couple days......i especially cant miss Wednesdays....in the 7 years ive been at this job i have only missed 2 Wednesdays, one i was in the hospital having surgery and the other was arraigned two months ahead of time and everything had to line up perfectly for me to go.....

 

[swords]

I got called for a federal case, something about drug trademark infringement which I know a LOT about! The judge looked like a 1970s porn star with swanky permed hair a big blond mustache and gold medallions hanging over his robe. I kept waiting to hear some funky beat start up...

But anyway, there were people dragged from all over Minnesota. One 800-1000 year old lady had driven from Grand Morais to downtown Minneapolis. I don't see why they don't just use people on unemployment and make them serve as jurors? Then they don't have a job to miss and usually young enough to make it to the courthouse safely.

I know my job wanted me to get out of it cos January is our busiest time of the year. They (and I) lucked out cos the lawyers liked the first 18 out of the 30 or so of us they called in. But we still had to sit there all day. I was only half conscious most of the time cos I'd worked 12 hours before (4 pm til 4 am) and just stayed awake the few hours between finishing work and having to go to the courthouse at 9 am. I probably looked well done.

I think I got $85 for the day .

 

[PlantAKiss]

I get called for jury duty every chance they can call me. Yet of all the people I know and have worked with, nobody has EVER done jury duty. So one time I wrote a letter (attched to my jury form) complaining that I wouldn't get called so often if they'd call some of these people who have NEVER EVER had jury duty! Damned if I didn't get a call from THE JUDGE himself one day while I was at work. lol Talk about shocked! The jury form person had given him my letter. He agreed with what I said and told me the rosters had not been overhauled in many many years and that he had already started the ball rolling on doing that. So all my friends were pissed at me. But I don't see where it's changed. I still don't know anyone who has done jury duty but me. lol

And it is not as easy to get out of as people think. At least not here. They need the jury pool so you really gotta have a legit excuse...they GRILL you like you are on trial if you try to get out of it.

I hate jury duty.

 

[rattler]

depending on what they are doing its pretty easy to get out of alot of the local stuff.....i think they actually pool ppl from a 3 county area....lots of ppl here get out of it cause everyone knows nearly everyone on a personal basis, so individuals from the outlying areas wind up on the jury most often and since its here and Poplar that have the most trials alot of Wolf Point ppl never wind up on the jury for the outlying areas cause there is no where near the case load.......lots of locals wind up going to Great Falls(bout 5 hours away) for federal cases though for some reason.....

 

[swords]

That's true PAK it's not as easy to get an "excused absence". I got a form that I could have a doctor, two witnesses and a lawyer sign to get out of the federal court jury thing!

 

[herenorthere]

The way to avoid jury duty is to want to get called for jury duty. It works for me. I'd love to be called in, but it's my wife who keeps getting the notices. Even my daughter got one back when she was maybe 11. Back when I didn't want to, I got called in and even was interviewed by the prosecutor and defense attorney during jury selection. Some of my answers were pretty negative towards prosecutors in general and I sometimes wonder if that led to a black mark next to my name in the jury selection database.

Around the same time, some people decided to investigate why juries were a lot whiter than expected and why people from Hartford didn't seem to be called for jury duty. They discovered that the data management system was set up so that the "d" in Hartford was in a column where it meant deceased. Fortran strikes again. They found another problem that excluded everyone in our judicial district's other city that has a high proportion of poor people and minorities. Sometimes it's hard to know whether you're seeing corruption or if it's just incompetence.

 

[swords]

The problem was that somebody found out the poor & minorities were being excluded from jury pools. Everything was going along just fine until some busy body had to point it out. Those investigators were probably communists too... my god! lol!

There was only one Asian guy at my Jury pool.

How did your kid wind up with a jury summons? I thought you either had to pay property taxes or register to vote for them to get hold of your name.

 

[Captain Hamata]

I just received my check from jury duty(about 2-3 weeks ago) in the mail today. It was for a big fat $11 and some cents. It was because my work paid me for the day and took most of the money that I would have had from the court. I didn't get selected to serve in any trials, but I enjoyed getting paid to sit around all day and listen to my Ipod in the waiting room. I'll do jury duty any time the courts want me.

 

[Halt]

you get paid by yer boss if you go to jury duty?

Man, i'd love to do jury duty all the time just sit around and listen to people talk for.. hours.. and ...nvm. :3

 

[herenorthere]

Since I work for the state, I'd keep cashing paychecks even if I had to spend the rest of the year on a jury. That's part of the reason jury duty wouldn't be such a burden. A lot of old people like being on juries because they don't have anything else to do and, in my cynical opinion, look forward to the opportunity to punish someone for everything they don't like in the modern world.

As for how my daughter got a jury summons, we never figured that out. My wife asked when she called to explain the situation and wasn't given a good explanation of how it happened. My daughter wanted to go, since she'd miss school.

 

[billylh]

From my experience with jury duty, I'd say that if you've EVER been summoned, they will keep summoning you like speed dial. Ive even been called upon twice in 3 months, which they aren't supposed to do and they give e a hard time about trying to get out of it.

I dont know how it is in other states, but here in Texas, pray you don't get called on by the civil courts, apparently there is no picking jury like in the criminal cases, if you get summoned, you will juror before the end of the day.

go justice!

~billy

 

[PlantAKiss]

From my experience with jury duty, I'd say that if you've EVER been summoned, they will keep summoning you like speed dial.

I think that's true. If they find someone who shows up, they just keep calling you as often as they can legally...and I guess sometimes illegally.

The trial process can be interesting but also disillusioning when you see people in the jury room making up their own scenarios as to how an event happened. "If the streetlight was over there, then that meant the guy couldn't see the have missed the jury instructions to only consider evidence presented in the trial. Not your own musings on "ifs and maybes". It was scary to know someone's life is in the hands of a jury after seeing what can happen in jury deliberation.

So...be careful Ozzy. lol