Back from Jury Service (1 month)

The Sandbox General
21

well in US it is one case only (unless a Grand Jury)

In NY we have what is called Call-Up Jury duty, you call in and if your number doesn’t come up it is time served

The first time I had to show up, they were soliciting blood donations. They didn’t call anyone waiting to donate, then when I was done I had lunch break and was then told I could go home.

The last time I called into for interview 100 people or so, drunk driving case. Almost half went home for general reasons. Was promised it wouldn’t last more than two weeks, I had a business trip in just over two plus, so I said I could sit, figured I was free get it over with.

They started the interviews and based on the questions I figured I was out - knew the neighborhood where it happened, the beach club she was leaving, I knew the husband’s restaurant, my father was law enforcement, insurance background. and other things I can’t remember anymore. Anyway I was basically in a last group of six people, they dismissed so many of the prior, that they asked me no questions and I was first alternate.

Her lawyer was a clown, spending a day arguing the damage to the car she rear ended. It was immaterial as it was admitted contact was made and she left. Witness after witness that seemed to hold no relevance. How the cops treated her, what the kids saw, how she was dressed. Oh, and the mispronunciation of words, or words that don’t exist.

Watched the OJ miniseries, where they mentioned Shapiro defended F. Lee Bailey in a two week Drunk Driving case that was one of the longest in history. Well we beat it. I was able to get off for my trip, but wouldn’t have deliberated anyway. It was so long I got an extra two year deferment for my next call up.

22

Completely agree about the civic duty angle. People love to hate jury duty in the US but I think it’s an awesome thing we’ve got to a societal place where you can (to a decent degree) expect to be judged in a trial by a jury of your peers, vs how it went in most of human history.

That said, I’ve been summoned four times, only had to go twice. Once I went and I was dismissed before even making it to a courtroom. The other time I made it to the courtroom and then even made it to questioning with the attorneys and they were super nice. I mentioned about working in insurance and taking actuarial exams, which the judge knew all about, then they dismissed me. I later realized working in insurance probably gets you struck off almost every civil trial because they all (mildly secretly) have an insurer involved.

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23

Was summoned twice, not including the times I received notice but was ineligible for various reasons (medical, moved out of city, etc.)

First time was a civil case involving the properties of Sheldon Solow, one of the wealthiest real estate owners in NYC. The case had a lot of entertaining moments, including the time Sheldon himself was called to the stand as a hostile witness from the plaintiff’s side. The case went for 8-9 days, not ideal, but I really enjoyed the other panelists. After the trial a few of us hung at for drinks at Solow’s flagship building (the big white building on W. 57th St. with the large red 9.). Drawback was that it delayed the start of a new job, but no big deal since I spent nearly 8 years at that company.

Also summoned last year, was in a pool of more than 40 potential jurors. In the morning we all answered various questions, such as our prior jury experience, who knows people involved in the case, have you been in a situation where such and such happened, etc. Then they called people in small groups for further questioning, but since I was in the back of the line they didn’t get to me by the end of the day so I was excused. Aside from having to sit and wait around most of the day it was a pleasant experience overall, as I got to meet some cool people.

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24

I’ve been summoned a couple times, but so far I’ve gotten out of it since I haven’t lived in the county that summoned me. But if that day eventually comes, my school counts each jury day as a work day, so I’m neither docked pay nor required to take any time off. Just that as a tradeoff, I have to give them any jury stipend I get from it. (It would be double dipping since my pay and jury pay both come from public funds. Although some districts where there’s a teacher union specifically have allowing the double dipping in their CBA.)

25

That’s what I had thought when I was questioned in a civil trial, but it was a contract issue (not a tort) so no insurance involvement.

26

One of the times i made it to the voir dire was a civil trial, medical malpractice. They started by asking a series of questions and asked people to raise their hands if applicable. The questions were something like:
Who works in the insurance industry?
Who knows someone who works at insurer x?
Who has a physician in the family?
Who has ever worked in a hospital?
Who has ever had a family member experience medical malpractice?

When I raised my hand to all these questions I think the judge thought I was trying to get out of jury duty. Needless to say I got tossed.

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27

When my Dad was a university professor that was how it worked, but he had so much unused vacation that he decided to burn vacation and pocket the jury pay.

Everywhere I’ve been summoned you don’t get the pay in the first place if your employer pays you.

28

I think in my county you can get jury pay even if your employer pays, but the jury pay is pretty paltry. It’s $25/day.

29

This should absolutely be illegal. It’s considered exploitation if a willing employer and willing employee agree to a wage of $7.24 an hour or less. The federal government says I need to be protected from such exploitation and my state or city might impose even more restrictive measures.

Yet when the state forces an unwilling person to work for them on pain of jail time for a fraction of that amount it’s… not exploitation???

That’s utter BS. If ever there was a need for a minimum wage it’s for jurors or others who are compelled to work against their will.

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30

My experiences with jury duty in the US:

My first jury duty summons came from the county where I grew up…10 years after I moved away. (One of the sources the court used to draw potential jurors from was the voter rolls, and I had never been purged.) I sent in the paperwork to indicate that I no longer lived in that county. The paperwork was lost, and eventually a sheriff’s deputy showed up at my parents’ house to arrest me for failure to appear.

In the 25+ years I’ve lived in Connecticut, I’ve received jury duty notices for state court four times.

One time, I called the night before. They had no need for jurors on my date of service, so I was excused for the year.

One time, the courts were closed due to a winter storm, and I was excused for the year.

One time, I had to physically report, and spent the day in a waiting room. Around 3 in the afternoon, they determined that they didn’t need any more jurors, and we were sent home, having satisfied our obligation for 3 years.

One time, I physically reported. My name was in the first crop of potential jurors for a criminal trial. We went to the criminal court room, where we were introduced to the basics of the case (sexual assault of a child), and asked en masse general eligibility questions (do you know the defendant, do you know any of the attorneys, etc.).

Spent most of the day (aside from a lunch break) in a jury room attached to the court reading a dead tree book (at least they had warned us in advance that computers and cell phones weren’t allowed in that court building), while potential jurors were brought into the courtroom for voir dire.

About half-way through, those of us left in the jury room were able to make educated guesses as to what they were looking for in jurors, based on how long different people spent in the courtroom (some people were questioned for 2 minutes, while others were in the courtroom for a half-hour), and whether they left with a small packet of documents. I was pretty sure that I was going to get picked…but just when they got to me (I was next-to-last in the order we were drawn), it was almost the end of the court’s day. I was excused, having satisfied my obligation for 3 years.

And then I have received one notice to serve on a grand jury for federal court. I forget the details, but it would have been a longer-term obligation. I forget whether I got out of it by calling the night before and being informed that they weren’t going to empanel a grand jury, or because I had done state jury duty a couple of months before.

31

Also, when I served on a jury I think a person changed their vote because they couldn’t afford to take another day off work.

We sat at 9-3 guilty for a long time and 10 are required to convict. The bailiff or someone came in during deliberation and asked if they should order us dinner or if we wanted to come back the next day to continue deliberations.

And the 10th juror, who had been complaining about the pay, changed their vote pretty shortly after that.

This is not how juries are supposed to make decisions.

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32

If you choose to drive and park at a deck adjacent to the courthouse, most of your jury pay will be spent on parking.

They do offer free parking at an outlying lot with a shuttle bus. It’s also transit accessible.

33

Oh, when I served they did reimburse parking.

34

In Connecticut:
If you are not employed full-time, jury pay is $50/day

If you are employed full-time, your employer is obliged to pay you your normal wages for your first five days of service…and then you get $50/day (although many employers will pay you normal wages throughout your time on a jury).

The $50/day is apparently not to be considered “wages”; it’s a just daily stipend intended to cover expenses incurred by being on the jury (travel, parking, lunch, etc.).

I suspect that “my employer won’t pay me beyond day five, and I can’t afford to lose that income” would be an excuse that most judges would accept for declining to serve on a jury for a trial that is expected to run a long time.

At the local state courthouse, jurors have their own (free) parking lot.

35

Same here. Barely covers parking fees.

36

Completely agree, I think it undermines the “jury of your peers” guarantee

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37

That’s probably the intent here too. I’ve done the free parking with shuttle, and other times paid for the convenience of adjacent parking. (depending on how busy I was and whether the weather was nice or not)

38

Surely jury pay should just be something like state minimum wage + 25% per hour you’re there

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39

Getting selected for a jury here is definitely a hardship for hourly wage workers that don’t get paid for jury service. Being on a jury for a couple of weeks could cause a significant hit to income. Most employers do pay, but not necessarily for those with hourly wage jobs.

40

When I was on a jury only 2 of us were getting paid. And one was an attorney with a billable hours goal, so… sure he was drawing his salary, but also not wracking up any billable hours, so… was he truly getting paid or was I the only one?

Then there was a retiree and a SAHM and 8 hourly employees whose hourly rates were a hell of a lot higher than jury pay.

Jury trials didn’t happen on Mondays so we all got to go to work on Monday. Mondays are set aside for landlord/tenant disputes. So the hourly folks did get a day reprieve where they could work. But to make 20% * (full pay) + 80% * ($25/day) was still a massive financial hardship.

Even the state minimum wage would have been a hardship for these folks, but that would’ve been a lot better than what they got.