Jury Summons!
 

I received a jury summons today. Never had one in all my years in the UK now been here just over 12 months and I can't participate because not yet a USC.

Has anyone been summoned and actually been? As a juror rather than an accused! ;-) Am I likely to be missing any drama or just a formal episode of Judge Judy? :blink:

Re: Jury Summons!
 

Within weeks of being a USC my husband received a jury summons...a month or so late I received one. Welcome to the club. :D

Re: Jury Summons!
 

My wife, a USC has never received one. I got four in my first three years here! In California (Riverside County), sending them back with the non-US citizen box ticked didn't seem to register.

Re: Jury Summons!
 

I was called twice at age 18, but haven't been since. Very weird.

Re: Jury Summons!
 

I got called when I was first pregnant with my son and got off (murder case)

and got called a couple of years ago for a civil case and selected which settled out of court ( I was interested in that and wanted to see how it would have gone, :frown:)

Re: Jury Summons!
 

I have been called once when I was 18 but got out of it as I was still in high school at the time, since my birthday was before the end of the school year.

I got a little survey once for federal jury duty, but they never called me in.

Been 8 or 9 years since I was called last.

Re: Jury Summons!
 

I kept getting them before I was a USC and sent them back with the box checked.
They wrote back and told me to prove I'm NOT a USC. Shouldn't they have to prove I am?? :confused:
Now I get them about once every year or so, I've never actually had to go yet. Me being at home with our little one and foster babies have stopped me.

Re: Jury Summons!
 

In the UK, I was exempt (or barred) from Jury service as I had once served in the Police Force

I wonder if that disqualification continues here ? Hope so

Looks like everyone is trying to jail everyone here and these jury summonses are flying around like confetti

I heard there are over 2,300,000 people in prison here (including 1 in 9 black men)

The US prison population is the highest in the world and china's is a long way down

I do feel vulnerable here actually - a moments inattention while driving could result in deaths and I could become a prison statistic very easily

I have seen the conditions in US prisons and I would rather die than go there.
UK prisons are a picnic compared

Remember jeffrey archer ? he was allowed out at weekends and had his rolls royce pick him up outside the prison and then he took the prison officers to fine restaurants for champagne etc

bit different here

Re: Jury Summons!
 

Where I live that's not the case. We have a friend who is an active police officer who just served on a jury. Seems like a big conflict of interest to me.

Re: Jury Summons!
 

That's bad news - hoping to be barred again !

A Police officer with a few years service can spot a jailbird from 50 metres.

So even if the guys record wasnt read out before conviction - for all i know they might do that here, the Police Officer or ex, would just think 'he's done a lot of time'

Watching nancy grace appalls me - someone who hasnt even been tried is referred to as 'a scum bucket' and 'low life ' etc and people call the show saying she should be fried and sent to hell etc

In the UK, we get zero details before the trial, and precious little during it

I prefer the british system and all this trial by television here really scares me in case i got accused of something

If I nipped out for a chinese take away and got approached by a woman police officer trying to trap 'johns', and she said how much for a 69 - and I said 20 dollars last time - i could have my face in the paper and on the internet BEFORE I was tried - thats scary

Re: Jury Summons!
 

Not an issue if you don't become a citizen.


All this worry must be bad for the triglycerides. Relax.

Re: Jury Summons!
 

Another reason NOT to become a citizen - the scales moving against it

They (USCIS) always parade the advantages like you can vote, but not the downsides like you pay US tax for life no matter where you live (on pensions anyway - unearned) , and have to serve on juries and go kill people in other countries. I am too old to fight but I would make a great torturer with my wine bottle opener and soldering iron and car wash sponge

triglycerides throbbing - my blood test is next thursday - i will have had 1 beer in 4.5 weeks !

living on rice cakes and the ocassional micro waved spud

next friday night i arrive in Manchester then the Yorkshire dales - lock up yer fish and chips - lock up yer timmy taylor fine ale - I am rampant

Re: Jury Summons!
 

I don't see naturalization as something you would really embrace, anyway.

Imagine, the agency in charge of encouraging more people to naturalize talks up the benefits. Amazingly sneaky, those bastards.

Doesn't the outrage make you weary? Aren't you excited to go roll around on the proper soil of the Motherland? Happy travels, and bring back some Ariel soap powder, wouldja?

Re: Jury Summons!
 

I didnt know the USCIS was in charge of encouraging people to naturalize - i thought they were just admin bods - executive branch

must be something in it for them if i do

I will embrace anything which has an advantage to ME - I am not stoopid and I dont swallow all the tearful gratitude of third world bods who make it to the US and make it sound like the promised land and learn about cherry trees and how the illegal armed insurgency of 1776 to overthrow the lawful government was superb, but illegal armed insurgencies to overthrow lawful governments since then, are bad, if the government is a puppet regime set up by the US -like in Persia or Cuba or Iraq or Georgia or Panama or the UK (tony Blair) or afghanistan or a dozen more


yes biological soap powder hasnt arrived here yet and neither has a lot of stuff like independant thought

Imagine what they are going to say about the Uk when they learn the next Primer Minister is a declared atheist ! (milliband) They will put us on the axis of evil list

Perhaps i am just too unbrainwashed to do citizenship

Re: Jury Summons!
 

I disagree. Participating in civic duties such as serving on a jury strikes me as an advantage of being a citizen of the country you live in.

I've been called once. The chances - in CA at least - of actually ending up on a jury are pretty low (although my manager did a few months ago). Firstly, you are part of a pool of potential jurors that are "on call" for a number of days. You may not even have to go to the court house depending on how many trial juries are needed in that period. And secondly, the defence can challenge a number of jurors and get them removed without needing to state a reason.