Lothianlad

Take it from me...that is assuredly not always the case! I should know as my partner is a serving police officer.

Jerseygirl

It was a joke...

Nutek

SultanOfSwing

It's been almost three-and-a-half since mine and over a year since I registered to vote and I still haven't been called.

Never got called in the UK either. I guess they know I'm a bit of a cnut.

This is a bloke who thinks the daily mail is an actual newspaper, JG. Enough said.

Sally Redux

We've all been called multiple times and we're not even citizens.

jmood

Wow. So after losing faith in many many things, it's almost as if one might just as well lose faith in life altogether. OK, I'm not suicidal, but I do mean it.

Guindalf

No comment - I don't want to jinx anything!!

Pulaski

I've been a citizen for six years, but never called for jury duty. Mrs P was called when she was five (note: FIVE) months pregnant. She asked to be excused, and the judge in his infinite wisdom only agreed to a deferral of three (note: THREE) months. She showed up at court eight months pregnant because risking another deferral until after the birth would have been worse!
It was?

Steve_

My lunch hour was different from the one at the courthouse so sometimes I used to just go in there at lunch hour as it was directly opposite and watch the proceedings.

I lost track of the crazy stuff I saw going on in courtrooms.

The closest movie depiction I can think of is: ...And Justice For All. which I strongly advise you to watch if you ever get called for jury service.

The reality is that a lot of the defendants are just bonkers to put it plainly and there are plenty of judges who aren't far off.

It always makes me laugh when people hold politicians in such low regard, well the spotlight is on them so they can't get away with much. You only get an insight really into how crap the judicial system can be when there are high profile cases reported in the media, and when those happen they're all making their best effort (e.g. George Zimmermann, Casey Anthony, OJ Simpson) etc. so imagine what they're like when no-one is paying attention.

jmood

Well it's dissapointing that the judges are crazy

Steve_

I wouldn't use the word "crazy" but I've seen some pretty questionable stuff happen.

The main thing that gets me is that you expect a judge to be knowledgeable about the law and they often aren't, even if the lawyers lay it all out in painstaking detail they still don't always get it. Especially the case in the US where a lot of court officials can be elected.

Also I've seen the police get caught flat-out lying in court. I remember one case where the lawyer demonstrated that what the police said happened clearly was impossible based on a simple calculation of how fast they would have to have driven (like 250mph or whatever it was) to catch up to a car they said was travelling at whatever speed it was over the distance they said. And he still lost.

paul32x

I haven't been called up for Jury service yet, been a citizen for around a year now, but I'm a court stenographer and worked in the Old Bailey and the Royal Courts of Justice for nearly 30 years and saw some really strange stuff and weird going on there in my time!

Steve_

Yeah and that's the Old Bailey, which is as good as it gets!

paul32x

A better class of weird!

Ruth16

Funnier still when their wigs are on crooked