Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Yay, off to jury duty.

Well, for the first time in my life I got summoned to jury duty. Gotta show up at the courthouse tomorrow. Fun, fun. I'm not entirely negative about it, as it will be a new experience that I'm curious about. Just sucks to be pulled away from work, as this is a busy time of year for me.

Anyone here a jury duty veteran?

Yep Pete, been there, done that....It has been about 10 years ago and I did enjoy my experience. I actually got picked and had to sit through a week of trial. It was sad case about a large family fighting over an inheritance. Hope you have a good experience.

First time ever about 3 years ago. Felt like "the right thing" to do. They're lucky to have you.

My wife got picked for jury duty on a party-gone-wrong rape with a brutal murder trial several years ago in Orlando, said she didn't care to go through that experience again. I've always been lucky, was called a couple of times but never got picked.

Good luck!

Peter, of course I've been involved with numerous juries. Keep just one word in the back of your mind if you're called upon to hear a criminal case: guilty! Seriously, it can be fascinating for a layman to experience the legal process in operation and hopefully you'll get to actually hear a case(if you answer carefully when examined).

I've gotten called a LOT. A LOT as in there was a period of 3 yrs in a row.

A few times got off because of work and school Another time I got off because I had just moved to a new county. One trial I was almost picked for was a death penalty phase, thank goodness I wasn't picked. I 'say' I'm for eye for an eye, but it's different when you actually are deciding on it. This was at the same courthouse at the same time as the Laci Peterson trial in Redwood City, CA. Crazy time.

A few months ago I got called and waited it out. The jury was full by the time it got to me. Just make sure to bring lots of reading material and maybe an iPod. There's a lot of waiting time and most of the time the jury room's wifi doesn't work.

My old boss gave me a good trick and my wife was able to use it. If you can delay your jury duty to the week of Thanksgiving, you probably won't get called. Most lawyers don't want to start a trial w/ only 3 days in the week. I unfortunately could only delay until the week before...

I also noticed that a LOT of people were excused this year for financial hardship, which is not normal. People w/ seasonal or hourly jobs got a pass because they could potentially lose a lot of money which could affect their families/mortgages. Scary.

Good luck. I decided this time I'd be OK to be on a trial, of course I wasn't picked...

After watching all my courtroom drama shows, I was fascinated by our defense lawyer. The DA had to write notes about everyone's answers to the standard questions. The defense lawyer just sat and listened. Then he would proceed to call on everyone, by name, after hearing it only once. AND, he remember EVERY answer in detail and would repeat it back to each potential juror. One of the juror's was a lawyer and commented how he was also impressed.

I've been called repeatedly; only saw a judge once, when I was asking to get off due to bad timing/financial hardship. With my current job, I don't have the same burden (we get full pay when we're on jury duty), but the only time I've had to go in, I got to go home in the afternoon without seeing a courtroom. Bummer.

Good luck!

Thanks for the replies, friends!

My job has a good jury duty policy, so I'm ok on that front. But I imagine that there are a lot of people out there that aren't so lucky.

Yes, I've already had several friends remind me to take a book and/or music along, as in this early stage of picking a jury it's just a whole lot of waiting.

Take the fifth!

I was just called last month. I got to go and sit in the jury duty room for 3 days with out being called once. Sure makes for a long boring day.