Jury Duty

[yellomalibu]

I am looking forward to my chance to serve on a jury and do my civic duty.
Last time I was called, my mother was living with me (she had no driver license) and I had to take her to a Doctor's appointment on the Thursday of that week - we have a one week time frame for jury duty here, too. I was excused for the week.

I don't expect to be arrested for anything, but sometimes life has a way of surprising you, and being arrested isn't impossible. I'm supposed to have a jury of my peers - if my "peers" do everything they can to "get out of" jury duty, which it seems like most people do, I am left with what? Retirees and housewives?

I don't think that all lawyers are ambulance chasers - but the ambulance chasers... man... we have one here in Florida (who has expanded into the whole southeast) who is now running ads on the radio to call him if you live in a house built before 1975 because it may have cast iron pipes in the plumbing... and if you don't hurry, you may miss out on having your insurance company pay for a re-pipe of your house. So ambulance chasers have already caused* health insurance to be unaffordable due to their lawsuits, now they are going to make homeowner's insurance unaffordable, too. This affects you renters, too, because the owner of that property still has to pay for insurance, and higher insurance rates means higher rent.
*chicken or egg? Was it the lawyers or the greedy / lazy citizens who want to be rich without earning it?

Sorry for the sidetrack. I don't dislike lawyers, but the ambulance chasing ones...

[studemax]

I don't dislike lawyers, but the ambulance chasing ones...

William Shakespeare had it right all those many years ago.... "LET'S KILL ALL THE LAWYERS".

[pdub]

I am looking forward to my chance to serve on a jury and do my civic duty.

You can for sure take my turn. Come on up here, I'll loan you my driver's license as ID, they'll never look at it. If they DO look at it, they won't be looking at the photo. More likely the date of expiration.

[silver_bullet]

Repeat after me.
If a criminal case "the cops wouldn't arrest him if he wasn't guilty"
if a civil case "all lawyers are ambulance chasers"

If, during the screening process you happen to show that you are set in your ways and extremely biased, you will be more than likely released... prejudgement is an immediate disqualifier....

[pdub]

If, during the screening process you happen to show that you are set in your ways and extremely biased, you will be more than likely released... prejudgement is an immediate disqualifier....

Guilty. Defense lawyers make a fortune trying to showboat and avoid the truth.

[silver_bullet]

EXACTLY! By Jove I think he's got it!!

[pats91]

Superbuickguy has it right - those type statements will make you unappealing to defense or plaintiffs lawyers.

I dont know what you do for a living Peewee, but since I am an engineer, that usually gets me tossed pretty quick. Trail lawyers hate having people on thier jurys who look at facts and use logic to reach conclusions.

[pdub]

Superbuickguy has it right - those type statements will make you unappealing to defense or plaintiffs lawyers.

I dont know what you do for a living Peewee, but since I am an engineer, that usually gets me tossed pretty quick. Trail lawyers hate having people on thier jurys who look at facts and use logic to reach conclusions.

I'm a training coordinator. I'm HR, which is a turnoff immediately. But I have about 4/10 of an engineering mind, how does this all fit together? So I'm skeptical going in, I don't think this will all fit together, unless you prove to me that it will. And there's an emotional part, that's the other 6/10. That gets in the way of all of it.

[Barry Donovan]

I remember having to go to court, an accident that killed someone and I was a witness that stopped.
inbetween the accident date and court.. I was disabled.
altered speech, even my head was altered shape. I was even misidentified.

So I gimp my way to the stand, and forgot why I was there.
I just stayed neutral, I felt bad about the whole scene.. car was faulty, boys had beers.
makes it extra bad then, to law.

Having a dead guy in our midst was enough to alter for the right thing to do for the rest of our lives.
being the mistake or not.. I am sure it changed anyone that was there.
The court must have known it.. the driver was not in jail for very long.

[pdub]

I remember having to go to court, an accident that killed someone and I was a witness that stopped.
inbetween the accident date and court.. I was disabled.
altered speech, even my head was altered shape. I was even misidentified.

So I gimp my way to the stand, and forgot why I was there.
I just stayed neutral, I felt bad about the whole scene.. car was faulty, boys had beers.
makes it extra bad then, to law.

Having a dead guy in our midst was enough to alter for the right thing to do for the rest of our lives.
being the mistake or not.. I am sure it changed anyone that was there.
The court must have known it.. the driver was not in jail for very long.

That's been my greatest apprehension - driving up to a scene.

I'm not sure.....no, I know I probably wouldn't do the right thing. I would just freak out.

[DanStokes]

I served on an attempted murder trial in MI and it was an awesome experience. I don't mean "awesome" in the modern use of the word but truly awe-inspiring to realize that you had many years of someone's life in your hands and that if you chose wrong the implications were life-changing. If the guy was guilty you sure didn't want to turn him back out into society and if not you didn't want to take all those years away from him (how would YOU feel?....). In the end we found him guilty of a lesser crime (which is what the prosecutor actually proved) and I have no clue what the judge sentenced him to.

My point - we all deserve a trial in front of hard-working jurors who are looking for the truth. If we're all focused on getting out of jury duty that won't happen. I'm surprised that the time commitment is so long in PW's jurisdiction but from my experience it isn't all that restrictive. Phone in every week and they'll tell you if you'll be called in or not. In NC I'm no longer required to serve because I'm over 70 but was recently called. I called in on the first week and they dismissed me for the duration.

Anyhow, there's no reason to fight this. The courts really will work with you and the experience if you DO sit is fascinating.

Question for SBG - as a lawyer are you automatically dismissed? My buddy is a corporate lawyer so I don't think he would be but I think you've said that you do show up in court from time to time.

Dan

[fatguyzinc]

"jury of my peers"-- peers being, according to wikipeia:

• An equal in age, education, or social class, as in peer group or social peer-to-peer processes

so, according to the letter, they gotta find 12 guys for my jury that are either
A) all born june 28th 1971 at 4:48am (age)
B) all graduates of NYT with 5 A.S.E. certifications (education)
C) a mix of 10 races yet considered "white" guy that grew up
in poor to mid hawaii and is now, STILL, poor to middle class...(social class)

good luck finding any of those 12 times, too specific.
seems like they take the term "peers" a bit too lightly to me.

[pdub]

"jury of my peers"-- peers being, according to wikipeia:

• An equal in age, education, or social class, as in peer group or social peer-to-peer processes

so, according to the letter, they gotta find 12 guys for my jury that are either
A) all born june 28th 1971 at 4:48am (age)
B) all graduates of NYT with 5 A.S.E. certifications (education)
C) a mix of 10 races yet considered "white" guy that grew up
in poor to mid hawaii and is now, STILL, poor to middle class...(social class)

good luck finding any of those 12 times, too specific.
seems like they take the term "peers" a bit too lightly to me.

Apparently it's not that easy (or hard) over here. they draw your number and you're "it." You're in, like it or not.

[Pumpkin]

but the ambulance chasers... man... we have one here in Florida

Morgan and Morgan?

[DanStokes]

Morgan and Morgan?

According to the TV ads I think it's really Morgan and Morgan and Morgan and Morgan and........

Dan