Jury Duty - who has served?

[Caribou]

I was called for jury duty last year. It was soooooooooo boring, I sat in this big room with about 100 other people for about 2 hours waiting for my name to be called then went and sat in the hallway for another hour or more waiting for the court room to let us in. Then sat in there for an hour while the lawyers decided who to take, I got called sat down and then both lawyers dismissed me.

Apparently they didn''t like the way I looked.

The case I got called for was: 2 grandparents accused of killing someone, I believe it was their drugged out family member they were so sweet looking, I kept sitting there looking at them thinking ''my grandparents couldn''t do that!!!'' So in the end it was good I wasn''t called I could not have ''juried'' well.

 

[phoenixgirl]

Thought I''d bump up the topic . . .

I''ve been called twice. Once in NJ, where you are assigned one day to sit there and chance being called. I was called into the courtroom and questioned for the jury, but I was on break from college (had already rescheduled the date) and couldn''t stay. The judge looked peeved because several others gave the same reason.

I was called this year in VA. Here you are "on call" once a week for a month. You have to call the night before to find out if you have to report. The bad news is that if you do have to report, you are as good as on a jury. I think about 75 people were supposed to show up, but only 50 did, and we had to fill three juries, so you do the math. We got divided into cases and sat outside of the courtroom, but luckily the lawyers for my case struck a deal at the last minute and we were dismissed.

 

[Regular Guy]

Storm, thanks for initiating this, and Phoenixgirl, thanks for bumping.

I think I was called twice, accidentally ignored the first one, and then, In Montgomery County MD, got called a second time. I was selected in the second time, and by my position alone in the lineup, as I recall, I was called on to be the foreman.

A really fascinating experience. I recall (18 months ago?) feeling so very held responsible for the outcome. It was a somewhat simple case...an older woman was driving, hit another car, and the woman who was hit was claiming possible long term subtle injury, potentially causing her huge lost wages. But, the young girl didn''t show...she was out of the country.

I recall my whole decision being made for me at the end of the trial, when the judge framed the basis upon which damages could be assigned. I now forget the precise set of words...they were even redone, for the attempted benefit of the accuser, but to no avail. The decision in my mind would be clearly quite small at most, despite the accuser''s concept that tens to hundreds of $1000s could be winnable. Over 3 or so hours we contested the details, and it was quite strange, some of our quibbling...but the real outcome on the upside was never in question...with some suggesting we give her nothing. In the end, we said $1000 should be paid.

Though I never made the time to watch a show on TV that recently showed similar jury deliberations, it was really a fascinating experience...and I''d strongly encourage anyone with a choice in the matter to avail yourself of the opportunity.