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And thats the other little. All those questionnaires can be pblic knowledge, and some of those questionnaires are extremely detailed and private.

Yeah, jury duty is serious business. While odds are you won't get picked for duty, consider that you could sit on a case that determines whether someone spends the rest of their life in prison. Needless to say, the judges, lawyers, court staff, etc. do not find it funny for people to try to shirk what amounts to a pretty simple task- listen and make a decision.

OTOH, courts are usually sympathetic to legitimate issues such as having to care for a disabled relative, sick children, prior nonrefundable airline tickets, etc. Because some people have actual issues rather than not wanting to be inconvenienced for a day or two.

 jmurph wrote:
Yeah, jury duty is serious business. While odds are you won't get picked for duty, consider that you could sit on a case that determines whether someone spends the rest of their life in prison. Needless to say, the judges, lawyers, court staff, etc. do not find it funny for people to try to shirk what amounts to a pretty simple task- listen and make a decision.

OTOH, courts are usually sympathetic to legitimate issues such as having to care for a disabled relative, sick children, prior nonrefundable airline tickets, etc. Because some people have actual issues rather than not wanting to be inconvenienced for a day or two.

This. Getting out of it cause you "don't want to do it" is a pretty cheese ball thing to do. Society doesn't ask a lot back from you all things considered.

Part of me hopes I get rejected because of my anxiety. Whilst it might be a cool experience, I don't like the idea of having to debate how a real person spends their next few years with a room full of random strangers potentially for many hours over a number of consecutive days. For me, that's one huge recipe for disaster. It's almost like they tailored it to be one of the worst possible environments for someone suffering anxiety to be in.

 djones520 wrote:

 jmurph wrote:
Yeah, jury duty is serious business. While odds are you won't get picked for duty, consider that you could sit on a case that determines whether someone spends the rest of their life in prison. Needless to say, the judges, lawyers, court staff, etc. do not find it funny for people to try to shirk what amounts to a pretty simple task- listen and make a decision.

OTOH, courts are usually sympathetic to legitimate issues such as having to care for a disabled relative, sick children, prior nonrefundable airline tickets, etc. Because some people have actual issues rather than not wanting to be inconvenienced for a day or two.

This. Getting out of it cause you "don't want to do it" is a pretty cheese ball thing to do. Society doesn't ask a lot back from you all things considered.

Speak for yourself. I have a nice hole in my paycheck every month, and "society" seems to be in a never ending race with itself to find new ways to tell me what to do. Now its even trying to tell me what to do in the restroom.

Part of me hopes I get rejected because of my anxiety. Whilst it might be a cool experience, I don't like the idea of having to debate how a real person spends their next few years with a room full of random strangers potentially for many hours over a number of consecutive days. For me, that's one huge recipe for disaster. It's almost like they tailored it to be one of the worst possible environments for someone suffering anxiety to be in.

Most trials are not nearly so life changing. On the positive, in most criminal cases, its really clear whether the defendant did it or not. Most civil cases are insurance/PI cases. You'll get a nice dose of hatred for all lawyers after.

 Frazzled wrote:

 djones520 wrote:

 jmurph wrote:
Yeah, jury duty is serious business. While odds are you won't get picked for duty, consider that you could sit on a case that determines whether someone spends the rest of their life in prison. Needless to say, the judges, lawyers, court staff, etc. do not find it funny for people to try to shirk what amounts to a pretty simple task- listen and make a decision.

OTOH, courts are usually sympathetic to legitimate issues such as having to care for a disabled relative, sick children, prior nonrefundable airline tickets, etc. Because some people have actual issues rather than not wanting to be inconvenienced for a day or two.

This. Getting out of it cause you "don't want to do it" is a pretty cheese ball thing to do. Society doesn't ask a lot back from you all things considered.

Speak for yourself. I have a nice hole in my paycheck every month, and "society" seems to be in a never ending race with itself to find new ways to tell me what to do. Now its even trying to tell me what to do in the restroom.

And our Canadian brethren get an even bigger chunk taken out. But, as Hotsauceman pointed out earlier, do you really want the people who may be on your jury one day to be the ones who were "to dumb to get out of it?".

Yea but Canadians get a moderately efficient medical system too.

do you really want the people who may be on your jury one day to be the ones who were "to dumb to get out of it?".

Been done that got a belt buckle. The one time I had the situation personally deciding my fate, I paid probably more than your salary to insure I had just the jury we wanted.

 Frazzled wrote:
Yea but Canadians get a moderately efficient medical system too.

do you really want the people who may be on your jury one day to be the ones who were "to dumb to get out of it?".

Been done that got a belt buckle. The one time I had the situation personally deciding my fate, I paid probably more than your salary to insure I had just the jury we wanted.

Yeah, well not everyone has that opportunity Frazz.

 Frazzled wrote:
Most trials are not nearly so life changing. On the positive, in most criminal cases, its really clear whether the defendant did it or not. Most civil cases are insurance/PI cases. You'll get a nice dose of hatred for all lawyers after.

Yeah, but all trials are important to the people involved in them even if they don't affect "society at large". And what even IS society at large, other than a collection of all of us?

No system of justice is perfect and there will always be injustices and system breakdowns here and there, but I honestly and truly believe that our legal system is on the whole fair and honest and mostly delivers justice, and I think it does so in no small part due to the men and women who show up and listen with fair minds and deliver honest verdicts - people who are full damn capable of figuring out the relatively simply process of getting out of jury duty, but who believe that they have an important role to play in safeguarding our liberties and rights, in ways small and large. Some people choose to put on a uniform and go into dangerous places for mediocre pay even with better options because someone has to helps keep people safe, some people have advanced degrees but choose to educate children for mediocre pay, and so on.

It won't kill you to sit in a room for a day, or a few days, and perform what is an utterly essential function in a democracy.

Yeah, well not everyone has that opportunity Frazz.

And BAM! now you see my most severe criticism of the US legal system. In far too many circumstances, money buys justice.

 Ouze wrote:

 Frazzled wrote:
Most trials are not nearly so life changing. On the positive, in most criminal cases, its really clear whether the defendant did it or not. Most civil cases are insurance/PI cases. You'll get a nice dose of hatred for all lawyers after.

Yeah, but all trials are important to the people involved in them even if they don't affect "society at large". And what even IS society at large, other than a collection of all of us?

I agree. I am just saying to our young compatriot not to to sweat that fear. I am sure he will do fine.*



*Frazzled partly is annoyed because Frazzled is always last to be picked to play juryball...

The main problem with it here in Ireland is it's handled inefficently. I got called up a few years ago. Stood in a room for about 2 hours with about 150 people, with no seats for most of us and bad air conditioning. Of those 150 if I recall about 10 or 12 were actually selected, 6 for each case. Came back the next day. Same deal. I had a back injury at the time so I went to the front desk and said I needed a seat. They didn't have one to spare so I was excused and told I could leave. The end.

Aside from the lack of seating and air the glaring thing for me was the amount of people they summoned. 50 per day would have been enough if a pool to choose from, 75 if you wanted to be spoiled for choice. Taking 150 away from a days work ffor 2 fairly run of the mill prosecutions is f-ing ridiculous.

 jmurph wrote:
Yeah, jury duty is serious business.

Not at all. The last two times I could have been called were for civil cases. The most recent one, the entire time both lawyers were talking, I was thinking how both parties looked shady AF - I didn't want either of them to win based on how they presented themselves. And for what? A little bit of money... If I had been picked, I would have been pissed at being conscripted to help one rich fether give more/less money to another rich fether. Feth them both.