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I've served on two juries and it was both fun and interesting. Haven't been called in years though. I've known people that received a notice almost annually though like clockwork.
 
Weird. My wife has been called for federal jury duty 5 times over the last 4 years. All of which she had a legit excuse to get out of. I'm sure she'll get a 6th this year which she won't be able to get out of..

And I've never been called for jury duty. Been eligible for almost 20 years.

What is your occupation?

Federal Court Judge! :)
 
Just show up wearing a T-shirt that says

''F*#! The law
And Screw
The Government''.

Your name will be permanently removed. For any jury duty for the rest of your life.:D

Except then you might get held in contempt of court. I would not recommend this tactic to get out of jury duty. Better to just get one of the lawyers to use one of their Peremptory Challenges to dismiss you. I'll leave it up to your imagination how to do that. Just don't do that in a way that could be construed as contempt of court, either. :eek:
 
I cringe every time I see the summons. My work will pay me while I'm on jury duty, but I couldn't tolerate all of the work building up while I'm away. It would be a nightmare to come back to if jury duty lasted more than a few days.

Postpone it as many times as you can. If you eventually have to show up, dress up like a bum and wear an offensive tshirt....something along the lines of "guns dont kill people, i kill people" <--my fav. If that doesn't work, say you have a racial bias and you are home free.
 
I've been called 5 or 6 times. I always get thrown off juries. Seems they don't like opinionated people.
 
Weird. My wife has been called for federal jury duty 5 times over the last 4 years. All of which she had a legit excuse to get out of. I'm sure she'll get a 6th this year which she won't be able to get out of..

And I've never been called for jury duty. Been eligible for almost 20 years.

(Quote from XnavxeMiyyep)
What is your occupation?

Federal Court Judge! :)

Won't stop you from getting called for jury duty, but it would take a very brave defense lawyer to not use some kind of challenge (if one is available) to get you dismissed from his case!
 
Me too! Nothing like a live Law and Order episode with front row seats! :p

Yeah, wait until you get your summons and realize not all lawyers yell, not all of them make rousing arguments and inspiring statements, and some of them (only a few) should never have considered such a charismatic job in the first place. ;)
 
I've been called 5 or 6 times. I always get thrown off juries. Seems they don't like opinionated people.

+1

Throw out as many opinions as possible. If you are asked if you have a family member that's a cop, don't just say yes, talk about about how heroic you think they are for taking all the thugs off the street.
 
WTF Government!

So, I received a jury summons again. My first came when I turned 18 (this year), that was a fun birthday present. Now they sent me another for march 10th of next year. March 10th is the day after my birthday, and it happens to be over my spring break (No Mexico For Me).

I think I'm going to show up in a storm trooper costume and a tin foil hat. That should make me ineligible for future summons'.

What state is it that won't let you defer for a couple of weeks? My wife got a jury duty notice that landed the same week as a trip we had planned and she just checked the box asking for a different week. The form warns that you can only do that once for any given call to jury duty, so if the new date had been even worse she would have been stuck. She ended up going about a month later and didn't get empaneled. When I got called I didn't get empaneled, either.

Also, don't assume that if you go for jury duty you are scott-free for a year. You can get called for state and Federal jury duty and serving on one does not get you out of serving on the other.

Now that you mention getting called two years in a row, was it for Federal jury duty, by chance? I've heard that once you serve on a Federal jury, your odds go way up for getting called again, something that doesn't seem to happen at the state level.
 
I've been called to Jury Duty twice in three years and after being paneled, I was the lucky foreperson on both cases. For those of you that had people hold out for that free dinner, it's not really worth it. Last year's case involved a well-known NFL star accused of beating his live-in girlfriend, but the evidence said otherwise, due in part to the poor strategy of the prosecution team and the fact that the woman returned to the household and was considered a hostile witness for the prosecution. Went through three ballots in about (1) hour, and the Judge recessed after our dinner. After the not guilty verdict was read, we asked several questions of the prosecutors, only to find out that this was their first case that actually went to trial...:eek:

The other case was a DUI with injuries and we were dismissed after the first day of trial, just as we were preparing for deliberations, b/c the defendant agreed to a "dry/reckless."
 
+1

Throw out as many opinions as possible. If you are asked if you have a family member that's a cop, don't just say yes, talk about about how heroic you think they are for taking all the thugs off the street.

That's what I was talking about when I said find a way to get one of the lawyers to dismiss you ;)
 
+1

Throw out as many opinions as possible. If you are asked if you have a family member that's a cop, don't just say yes, talk about about how heroic you think they are for taking all the thugs off the street.

My first time called for jury duty was for federal court. I was picked for a jury and seated. It was a drug trial and the guys were caught on video tape. I even know some of the locations they talked about.

Just before the first witness was called, I noticed 2 of them staring down the jury, trying to intimidate them, no doubt. I kind of yelled out, what are you looking at. One of them responded, I didn't hear what he said but I then said, I'm gonna fry your ass. The judge sent me home and excused me from further service.
 
Smooth. Very smooth.
I can only hope I don't have to deal with this too often when I hit the magic age.
 
The judge sent me home and excused me from further service.

Something similar at my most recent jury duty, when the defense attorney asked this older gentleman, "can you make a decision as to my client's innocence or guilt despite his being an NFL player?" The guy responded "well, he's so big, he musta' done it." Immediately excused...:eek:
 
Me too! Nothing like a live Law and Order episode with front row seats! :p

You realize of course that an actual trial is nothing like that of course. ;)

Get ready for an hour of questioning that establishes that the suspect was wearing a "head covering resembling a black beanie."

Yeah, wait until you get your summons and realize not all lawyers yell, not all of them make rousing arguments and inspiring statements, and some of them (only a few) should never have considered such a charismatic job in the first place. ;)

I wouldn't say the job is "charismatic" to begin with.

It's about being diligent, intelligent, clear, logical, and prepared.

Being able to give a Sam Waterston-style speech is really just a cherry on top.


I am a bit frustrated with jury duty at the moment. I just finished jury service (didn't have to go in, but still) for California and got a Federal summons this week.

It's not too far from school, so I don't even have a good excuse.
 
Jury Duty

Hi All,
I was on jury duty for 9 days on a murder trial and I found that everybody thinks differently and I found that there are people who do not care what happens to people they dont know .People in the jury pleaded guilty even though they had some doubt !!!!!!!!! How can you say guilty and u have doubts. Well some of them just wanted out and go back to the life they had befor jury duty. The #1 juror had doubt but said guilty .Im truely upset that there was doubt but people pleaded guilty.Well there was a hung jury and now there will be another trial. When u do get called for jury duty listen to everything and remember this is real its not tv believe me. Id do it again.
 
This is an old(ish) thread. What's the plan, EVOLUTION? Going or not?


Jury selection is part of the reason I have little faith in "the justice system". Your freedom is being decided by a bunch of numpties who weren't clever enough to get out of jury duty, or worse, people who actually wanted to be there. :p
 
I was able to get it moved for the 3rd time so I could go on spring break. :D

I have it over the summer in July now, which wont bother me to much.
 
Do you have to be a citizen to be qualified for jury duty or does it not matter? I looked it up for California but it wasn't clear whether you have to have citizenship or not.

I'd love to go to jury duty.
 
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