Jury Duty

[hawkgt]

released...

civil lawsuit, liability only as $$$$ have already been settled. Expected to last 4 days for trial.

Guy rear ended a lady driving truck with loaded trailer (moving I guess) southbound interstate late summer of 2016. Happened just after midnight and the guy claims no lights on trailer, etc... She claims he was speeding, not my fault, you hit me, etc.. only got the exec summary from judge since jury not set yet.

150-170 in the room for check in, shit show with the snow this morning. Normal 20 mins drive was 65mins so they were understanding with the trickle in of folks. Watched a video on what's happening, how you ended up there, why your doing it.... I thought it was well done actually and props to the court for the 15 min mind numb and reminding me it was my fucking civic duty and and to buck up.

First bunch of 30 in the pool, 14 in the box (I was 6) and 16 in galley. Court questions of who are you, what do you do, back ground, kids, wife, etc.... std stuff really and then lawyers get 30 mins each, who has been in a wreck? rear-end someone? ever tow a trailer? One gal released right away from the box, she was re-ended by a state trooper recently and she had a few words for those who can not control a vehicle. Was asked if I knew how trailer lights worked and how to hook up a trailer.... yep, yep, and I walked through it, etc.. I think that is what got me out of it. There was 3 of us who all answered that we knew trailers and towed on the reg... we were the first 3 names released but they kept 6 in the box and sent the rest of us home.

Is it inconvenient? Yep, pain in ass. Is it worth it, yep, if we want a Judicial system to work we need impartial jury who can look at the facts, that means all of us mouth breathers. I answered everything honestly was prepared to ride it out. Until next time......

I'm going skiing tomorrow

[snowaddict91]

I got my first summons yesterday for a few weeks from now. Timing is good as I'm wrapping up a big project at work right now, its a day I would normally work, and my employer pays me still.

I'm excited to see the process. I also hope it doesn't go longer than 2-3 days or it will mess with skiing. But that is the definition of a first world problem.

[Danno]

Court questions of who are you, what do you do, back ground, kids, wife, etc.... std stuff

Wow, they're getting pretty personal with the questions!

[hawkgt]

lets see if I can remember all of them..... was posted on flat screen (court room was nice, clean, organized, etc... and good tech around. translators and headsets for those who needed it) for every (14 box jury) to respond to, we all got the mic.
- Name, city where you live
- how long in Jefferson (corrected for old county i lived in) county
- Occupation
- Education, and any certificates, training
- spouse? occupation? certificates, etc..
- kids? occupation? certificates, etc..

They were looking for things that would relate to case, did you work with someone? anyone related? Any cops, troopers, etc in the family or friend circle that would taint judgement, etc... Done to sort the chaff for any bias. Made sense as went through process as couple folks leaned hard one way off the bat, the retired gentleman was not happy we wasted tax money on translators. Each side could release 4 from the box so that took 20 mins of paper shuffling before we got the hook.

[TBS]

… who has been in a wreck? rear-end someone? ever tow a trailer? One gal released right away from the box, she was re-ended by a state trooper recently and she had a few words for those who can not control a vehicle. Was asked if I knew how trailer lights worked and how to hook up a trailer.... yep, yep, and I walked through it, etc.. I think that is what got me out of it. There was 3 of us who all answered that we knew trailers and towed on the reg... we were the first 3 names released but they kept 6 in the box and sent the rest of us home

High-level litigator told me you want 12 people with average ignorance. Those who know too much are agents of jury room chaos

I'm excited to see the process. I also hope it doesn't go longer than 2-3 days or it will mess with skiing. But that is the definition of a first world problem.

Be sure to mention during selection that your attitude will degrade exponentially if it goes beyond 2-3 days and your buds are skiing while you listen to dissembling lawyers drone on…

[Danno]

lets see if I can remember all of them..... was posted on flat screen (court room was nice, clean, organized, etc... and good tech around. translators and headsets for those who needed it) for every (14 box jury) to respond to, we all got the mic.
- Name, city where you live
- how long in Jefferson (corrected for old county i lived in) county
- Occupation
- Education, and any certificates, training
- spouse? occupation? certificates, etc..
- kids? occupation? certificates, etc..

They were looking for things that would relate to case, did you work with someone? anyone related? Any cops, troopers, etc in the family or friend circle that would taint judgement, etc... Done to sort the chaff for any bias. Made sense as went through process as couple folks leaned hard one way off the bat, the retired gentleman was not happy we wasted tax money on translators. Each side could release 4 from the box so that took 20 mins of paper shuffling before we got the hook.

it was a joke, a bad one I guess. "std" isn't always an abbreviation for "standard".

[hawkgt]

^^ all good, lesions are healed up, thanks for asking.

[Nobody Famous]

I found this thread while I was on jury duty today. During the five+ hour wait in the jury marshaling rooms, think car dealer's waiting area that hasn't been renovated in 20 years.

The advice above seems relevant and was a good read while waiting. Although I never had to use it.

At 8:15, after the stragglers got settled a judge came in and gave a boiler plate intro with a few entertaining points, "Show of hands, who checked our website after 4 pm yesterday to see if they have to report?" Most hands went up. "And who thought I'm so excited to do this?" All the raised hands went down. Which led the judge into to voting and jury duty are two basic duties of citizenship, yes you have to sacrifice your time away from work and family that's the cost we all pay ...

The staff announced there is only one trial today it's criminal not civil. Then they said we'll turn on the television in a moment today we're watching the cooking channel. It struck me as a very sterile, disconnected way to say you'll be here doing nothing for a while.

We waited all morning. People were getting restless when 12-noon lunch time rolled around, and the staff announced we need you to stay in here because a decision is close. Made me think the judge or his staff were quietly texting the jury staff 'tell those fuckers to cool their heels we might have a decision shortly.'

Right before 1 pm the staff attendant announced "judge so and so" will be here in a few minutes to address you. Someone close by said that doesn't seem like a good sign.

Judge so and so showed up, he was a polished speaker, and before telling us were done the accused plead guilty and no trial, he said "I want to explain why you are here today and what role you played in the process. Don't go home and tell your friends and family it was a waste of time because it was not. We have to provide a jury trial to anyone who exercises that right which is written into the US and state constitutions. Of the X thousand of cases we get per year about 1% go to a jury trial. And while no one in today's trial decided to plead just because 80 or 90 jurors were lying in wait, the lying in wait part is fully part of the process." The net effect was he put a positive spin on an hours-long dull and boring experience.

The judge mentioned a few common myths about jury duty, how everyone searches social media for ideas how to get out of it and how few if any of the ideas work, how unlike in the movies it's only a once every five year thing where jurors get sequestered in a motel over night. It caught my attention when he said we are the x largest county in the state, we do a one trial or one day approach. If you were to do jury duty in a smaller population county you'd be expected to show up every day for two weeks. I thought JHFC to that. The judge said I'm not exaggerating on this point.

One thing I found odd was the juror name tag badge, it had to be worn at all times, they stressed including outside the courthouse at lunchtime. This was so people know not to approach you and not to talk to you. Even the uniformed sheriff's deputies would avoid all eye contact once they saw the badge.

[Ted Striker]

That's interesting (in how different it was from my two experiences). I'm assuming we live in different states.

We weren't expected to show up every day - just have our phones on us (and actually answer). And I did just blow it off the third time because I had some family stuff going on, and there were no repercussions.

[singlesline]

Yeah, when I got called in Minneapolis (so largest county in the state), it was a 2 week commitment. Although I believe the second week was purely on alternate status. And I'm not sure we made it past Tuesday. I know I went in on Monday, then we were told to switch to call-in status. Can't remember if I even went in on Tuesday or if when I called in they said "we're good, no more need to come in at all". This was pre-smartphone-era though, so they might do things differently now.

When I got called in Chicago (also largest county in the state), they do one day/one trial. I got put on a civil trial so it ended up being a week or so.

Here in Whitefish, I was drawn as a prospective juror for a specific trial (I assume they don't have enough jury trials to maintain a live daily pool so they just bring in a group as needed). But that trial either resolved or rescheduled and went away.

I'm in the "its my civic duty" camp and am one of those people who enjoys seeing the innner workings of the system, so I don't really mind. I'd happily be on a jury again.

Was my Chicago trial a dumb waste of time? Sure, but only because the plaintiffs were shitty people with a terrible case that wasted the entire court's time...but the duty part I'm cool with. And it was kinda fun watching someone repeatedly lie on the stand and then have the defense attorney play back their deposition testimony saying the opposite thing (but also kinda sad that they suffered essentially no consequences for this)