the fact that they’re the jury
Oh you sweet summer child.
Certainly gonna trust them more than some random online actuary. Especially one that is clearly biased.
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Have you ever served on a jury? I have. And it’s pretty easy for one to be as dumb as its dumbest member.
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that’s completely irrelevant.
it’s also easy for a random online actuary to be just as dumb
people like the jury system for a reason. so that not all eggs are in one basket
What part of Lucy’s post is irrelevant? The composition of the Jury?
- that she’s been on a jury
- that it’s pretty easy for one to be as dumb as its dumbest member
so you know, the whole thing
I’ve not served on a jury. I’ve participated in psychology exercises that mimic the group decision making dynamic. So I’ve no doubt that one loudly confident moron can sway an entire group. 
That said, both sides have a bit of say in who sits on the jury, and those folks heard and saw everything whereas I only caught the click bait highlights and a few witnesses here and there.
And given that, the verdict was pretty much what I thought it would be, sooo …. Time for the next distracting drama ….
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i get the impression that for at least some jury’s, the people who make it are the people who agree to stay. when i was at jury duty, they told us that this case was expected to last for 2 months, and gave us all the option to say no, no questions asked. every single person walked out of that room other than one with that out. so, how picky can they really be if they are gonna give people an out.
granted, not all long trials do this, but the one i was called for did.
how long was this trial though? if it was short, then that’s not gonna be an issue.
One thing to note regarding the comments about the verdict being over turned on appeal. Trial courts are generally concerned with determinations of fact and appellate courts are generally concerned with determinations of law. In order for a jury result to be overturned, the appellate court must find that there was some aspect of law that was violated during the initial trial and that it was material to the outcome of the case. In this case, the appeal would likely focus on the size of the judgement where it exceeds some sort of statutory limit or precedent of some sort (IANAL so that is a broad generalization). It would be extraordinarily rare for the appellate court to over rule the determination of fact that either party was defamed in this case.
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6 weeks
I was picked to serve jury duty for a civil case that was expected to last 2-3 months. They picked me because I was concise with my answers. I tried making myself appear biased but they saw through it. The case was ultimately settled. Fairly quickly into the case I was ready to say that the defendant was guilty and maximize punitive damages
oh wait, i said 2 months. i meant 3 months, not 2.
i’m sure there are cases where they don’t give you a choice. i’m just saying that for some, they do.
I should add they were paying us $150/day. The defendant and plaintiff was paying us about $140/day split+standard court pay
that’s a thing? i thought the pay for jury duty if you don’t have an employer paying you was way lower than that.
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I am reminded of someone presenting at a CPCU conference who said “Try me before a jury of my peers? My peers are smart enough to get out of jury duty!”
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It’s normally low pay. This was unusual because the plaintiff and defendant both agreed to give us extra money. They were both rich.
Yeah, I have railed that at a minimum there is no possible excuse for paying jurors less than minimum wage.
If it’s considered exploitation when an employer pays a willing employee $7.24 per hour, then what the heck is it when an employer forces a person to be their employee against his/her will on pain of incarceration and pays $5 an hour or less???
Jurors are more deserving of a minimum wage than McDonalds employees IMO.
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i’ve heard that you can simply ignore the jury duty questionnaire and they eventually give up. there is no actual consequence to it.
That’s a friend’s strategy. His reasoning is since it’s not sent certified mail they can’t prove you got the notice.