I know that Jury Duty is mandatory in both nations (USA all 50 states / Canada all 13 provinces) meaning citizens have to show up in person when they receive the “dreaded letter” via the mail telling them the date / time and court in which they have to attend, excusals exist if you manage to plead your reasoning for excusal with evidence.
I mean, have you received a summons from the court saying you’ve been chosen as a juror? There are penalities on failing to attend. If you were selected on being part of the jury, what is the experience like and how much are you paid? If you weren’t selected on being part of the jury that time, is there a chance you can be summoned again at any given moment?
Neurodivergent people (i.e. Autism, ADHD, dyslexia) who have received the summons can plead their reasoning as to why they aren’t eligible to be a juror only if they have medical evidence (diagnosis of their condition, psych report, doctors letter, medical certificate) explaining why their condition makes them unable to serve & etc.
I was selected 3 times and sat on juries for murder cases each time. Guilty, not guilty, and guilty. Last time was 2017. It was worthwhile thing to do even if it was inconvenient.
I’ve been summoned a couple times. Was paid $12 for not being selected to the jury. I think you’re off the roster for awhile? They were about a decade apart.
My first summons was when I was 18 …I ditched it… paid the fine. Back the it was 80 bucks. The next time some 30 years later I went. It was in San Diego superior and there were hundreds of other people in a huge hall and they were calling names. I tried my best to be invisible but my name came up. Next thing I know is everyone in the nury thinks I’d make a good foreman… Despite my objections that’s what they wanted. Ended up being a slip and fall case for a lady in a restaurant. I fought like hell to get her more compensation and w eventually reached a compromise. I got her a better settlement and wow what a cool experience.
I think its $12/hr compensation, and fuel only gets reimbursed if you gotta drive for more than an hour to show up. I got my letter on my desk, but its for an undetermined date in july
how much are you paid?
I don’t remember exactly, but I remember feeling insulted by the stipend because I spent more on parking in downtown Detroit and had no means of transportation into the city other than driving myself. I had such a hard time finding cheap parking spots within reasonable walking distance of the court.
I’ve never actually served, but the pay is like $2 an hour plus maybe parking in the US. How frequently you actually receive a jury duty summons depends on jurisdiction.
I have been summoned many times and have never sat on a Jury.
Was summoned once, and ended up on the jury. It was a really sad case where the cops were trying to put an 80-something year old former convict back in prison, because his son in law had a gun in the house (that they searched because of something the son in law did, but no charges were brought against him), and that was a violation of the 80-year-old’s release conditions from like 40 years ago.
I really wanted to end up on the jury in order to keep this guy out of prison, which luckily we did. The defense was very smart in making his case sympathetic, even though legally the guy had no leg to stand on. There were a few jurors that wanted to imprison him, but we finally got them to go with the majority to ignore the law and keep him out of prison.
The easy rule of thumb if you do/don’t want to be on the jury: the less you talk, the more likely you are to end up on the jury. The more annoying you are, especially talking about how busy you are, or asking a lot of pointless questions: the less likely you are to end up on the jury.
I’ve been summoned twice in the past 7 years and neither time did I actually even get to the point where they interview to decide if I would have been a juror.
First time I got summons was like a month after I moved to a different city for work and I let them know and they said okay you don’t need to come.
Second was like last year and I accepted the summons but then got a notification that I was no longer needed as the trial wouldn’t happen. I assume plea deal or something.
I served on Grand Jury in NY state. 2 days a week for 8 weeks, listened to the evidence and decided if there was enough to charge/not charge. Really interesting experience.
I’ve been selected three times for jury duty. Two were county and one was federal. As far as pay went, county payed awful, it was less than minimum wage. Federal paid a bit better, and I got mileage to the courthouse, I also had to front the parking cost and be reimbursed later.
The first time I was on a criminal trial for rape of a mentally handicapped woman, I was kicked off that jury during selection. The second time I had to go in one day, but all the cases for the day ended up settling, so they sent us back home. The third time was a civil case for a prisoner who had his stuff destroyed by one of the guards, I was part of the jury and we couldn’t reach a verdict because some people couldn’t believe a guard would just do bad things.
we couldn’t reach a verdict because some people couldn’t believe a guard would just do bad things.
That’s wild.
Was the guard human? Yes? Then they are capable. Look at the evidence!
To be fair there wasn’t really any evidence. The guard claimed it was a contraband search for a hat the inmate was wearing, but the guard followed the guy back to his cell from a separate building and never actually found the contraband. The guard claimed the inmate destroyed everything after the search. There weren’t any witnesses, and any camera footage that could have proved anything was not retained by the prison.
It’s clear to anyone that remotely understands how prisoners are treated that this was clearly a guard abusing their power, but privileged white women don’t have to face that reality.
No, no. It is a long established scientific fact that once you take a 6 week criminal justice course at the community college and put on that badge, you’re physically incapable of doing wrong.
I once got summoned while I was in the hospital being treated for Leukemia. They gave me an exemption and some get well wishes.
I’m 47, I’ve been summoned twice, but never selected to actually serve.
Been selected many times, but they don’t like engineers on juries.
why don’t they like engineers on the juries?
We tend to think logically more than emotionally. We can do timelines and walk cause-and-effect. Some of us have functional BS detectors. But most importantly, we ask questions and know how to word them.
I’ve served on two juries.
The first was for a traffic accident. The parties involved had already decided on the amount of money that was involved, we just had to decide the percentage of fault of each party.
The second was a criminal case in which two people broke into a restaurant and held employees prisoner to rob the restaurant. They were convicted.
I’ve been summoned twice since. The first time I went in and was excused. The second time I was told I didn’t have to appear the night before.
Here in my county you have to fill out and submit a questionnaire. One of the questions is whether you can give a police officers testimony the same weight as any other person.
My response recently has been that I would believe a police officer less than any other person. My reasoning being that anyone who has been paying attention to current events and doesn’t believe that all cops lie would be too stupid to serve on a jury.
I don’t mind serving on a jury, but it’s looking like answering the questions honestly means I won’t be selected again.
