GeoffM

Just three weeks after naturalising I now have a juror summons letter! Fresh meat I guess. It's in a month from now but I'll be away so I have to postpone it.

Jerseygirl

Same thing happened to hubby. Took 3 months for me.

Hubby hung around the court house all day...he wasn’t needed.

I was juror #1 in a double murder trial. I was excused by the defendant’s attornies as the day before the murders occurred I was in the shop next door. The trial went on for several months...the verdict was guilty.

GeoffM

I can see why many people are unenthusiastic about doing jury service - here it's $15 per day compensation starting from day 2 (ie paid nothing day 1). As I'm self employed I basically shut up shop for the duration. While I'm happy to serve, miffed at what it will cost me would be an understatement.

scrubbedexpat091

I still get a summons from time to time, being out of the US/California though I have a valid excuse.

When I lived in San Diego the local court house to me did telephone standby, you called every night by 5pm and would either be told not to come in, or to come in, luckily each day I called, I was told not to come in, so never had to do the spending the day waiting around at the courthouse, nice system they had set up.

I received a federal grand jury survey/test/whatever they call it, but never got called. That sort of jury I wouldn't mind being part of.

Rete

Hubby was called to jury duty a few months after naturalizing. As Jsmith said, our system was a phone in system and he was never asked to attend. For myself, I've served on a civil lawsuit jury in New York State court and also attended federal court as a juror in lower Manhattan in New York City. The pay rate is dismal but for those retired it is added pennies to your monthly allotment and for those that work, it is often small pin money on top of your regular salary. Any company/firm I worked for, paid my full salary when I attended jury duty and the time was not taken from my vacation or personal days. I was very lucky.

Jerseygirl

In NJ you can get excused for being self employed. I was surprised what excuses people gave that got them excused. One woman answered the phone for her son’s biz...excused. Holiday...excused.

GeoffM

Unfortunately not here.

It turns out I only live a couple of miles away and there is something about being (re?)called to turn up within an hour so I may get lucky.

Octang Frye

"Excuse me, you honor. I'm an avid proponent of jury nullification."

"Thank you, you're excused."

dc koop

Strange why so many people try to get off jury duty yet if they were on trial themselves they'd expect a jury as part of the process.

Lawyer for defendant: Where is the jury pool. your honor?

Judge: We were unable to get anyone today therefore I will decide the matter of guilt or innocence. Proceed with the case

GeoffM

Hardly surprising if my daily "wages" amount to lunch and a cup of tea and that's about it. Oh, apart from loss of income, let's say $1000-2000 a week. More and more of us self employed folk every year so if there is a jury shortage then the problem could get worse.

[EDIT] Apparently I'm wrong: the self employement rate is going down. Could've sworn I heard it was going up, what with the likes of Uber etc.

Giantaxe

There are bigger problems with the jury pool than self employment issues. Note the lack of African Americans, for example, if you actually have to show up in the courthouse.

I used to get called every year and have ended up on a jury the two times I actually had to go to the courthouse. Second time was a six week murder trial (defendant was found guilty of second degree murder and obstruction of justice for trying and failing to get a witness murdered). Really distressing case. Haven't been called in the three years since then until... a summons arrived this week. Can't say I'm that enthusiastic about the prospect of being on a jury again, but I consider it an obligation of citizenship and a bedrock of the criminal justice system.

scrubbedexpat091

Not everyone has the savings to miss work, not all employers pay employees for jury duty and so for some people missing work creates a financial hardship. The first time I got called to jury duty, I was making 6.94/hr, I couldn't afford to miss work, missing work meant not having enough money for rent. I was excused without having to go in due to jury duty being a financial hardship, back then there were a variety of reasons one could use to get out, now they seem a bit more strict.

The state should do is require employers to provide the employee their salary when being forced to miss work for jury duty, or the state pay a more reasonable rate for it, at least $100/day.

dc koop

Absolutely agree with you on that

dc koop

Yes they should. They're required already to pay employees who are called for National Guard training, Why not the same for jury duty which on average is rarely more than five days

If the trial is to be a long one the judge will generally ask for prospective jurors on a voluntary basis. Seems to me they try to accommodate each one as much as possible

GeoffM

Just to make it clear, I do not have a problem with jury service; the issue I have is very little spare income for my family being eroded by potentially days or weeks of no work.