How I skipped jury duty - Page 4 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

mgburg · #46 05-25-2009, 06:36 PM

My understanding is that the potintial jurors are selected from the voting registration rolls...you register to vote, you're jury-bait. Fair trade off.

As for compensation...no one is stopping anyone from petitioning for better compensation...someone had to set the rates some time ago...maybe it's time to go back and look at those numbers once again...

In my case, at the last three employers that I received a bi-weekly check from, within their own Employee handbook/manual, Jury Duty and pay was spelled out as to how it would be handled...in all three cases, each employer guaranteed your job as it was when you left for duty...just as it would have for Guard Duty or any Service obligation...

Jury Pay was yours to keep, two of the companies even went so far as to state that the time on Jury Duty would be considered like "paid-vacation" (PV) BUT it wouldn't count as time taken against your normal PV benefit you'd get as the employee. Example: If I had 80 hours of PV and served 45 hours of jury duty, I'd get 45 hours of jury pay, my employer would still pay me my regular hours, but it be noted on my pay-stub as vacation pay (or noted as Jury Duty) and I'd still have my regular 80 hours of PV that I had before the Jury Duty...the company just wanted to be sure (document) what was going on and that you really weren't vacationing...

It seemed that I got the same treatment as a witness to a case that I got called to...I showed up (along with another witness) and the whole thing got "pled" before the trial even started (in the hallway, the DA showed the guy that he really had witnesses, so he and his attorney pled-out before we even got into the courtroom). The other witness and I got a check from the county before we even got off the floor of the courthouse that morning...

I guess if you work for some decent folks, being on Jury Duty or even being a witness isn't as much of a ***** as some folks make it out to be...it's more the situations that determine your attitude towards the process as a whole.

SwampYankee · #47 05-26-2009, 09:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mgburg

My understanding is that the potintial jurors are selected from the voting registration rolls...you register to vote, you're jury-bait. Fair trade off.

I believe they use DMV records as well.

I was called once, hung around reading for 1/2 a day and got dismissed at 2:00. I had lunch at a damn good Polish restaurant (court was in New Britain). All in all not a bad day.

I actually wouldn't might serving on a jury just to see how it all works. More than a few days would probably suck if sequestered, though.

aklim · #48 05-26-2009, 11:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SwampYankee

More than a few days would probably suck if sequestered, though.

Probably would but look at it this way. If everybody refused to serve on a jury, how would you like that when your turn comes and you need a jury? You willing to let the Judge be the Jury and Executioner too?

SwampYankee · #49 05-27-2009, 10:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aklim

Probably would but look at it this way. If everybody refused to serve on a jury, how would you like that when your turn comes and you need a jury? You willing to let the Judge be the Jury and Executioner too?

Nothing I've said implies that I wouldn't do it or would try to get out of it. Doesn't mean it wouldn't suck. If my number is called; and some way, some how make it through voire dire; then so be it.

strelnik · #50 05-27-2009, 10:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kerry

Sentence: Incarceration with the dog until the exact number of wrinkles on the balls is determined and verified.

Don't laugh, there's a case like this that I have from the Middle Ages in which a dog was prosecutred and it had something to do with his gonads, lol.

But-- I live in Wayne County Michigan, the most inept county in the country- think the Detroit mayor Kilpatrick- and I have been summoned three times to jury duty, waited all day and .....nothing.

The Court Clerk forgot to schedule cases, so there were no cases that day. We waited for nothing. What was she doing all day?

The court clerk scheduled us for November 11- which is a court holiday- we waited in an empty room watching reruns of the movie " The American President " for half a day (the movie is on a continuous loop- like we were kids being entertained) -- then at 1130 we were told to go home because " No one's here."

Detroit, ya gotta love it.

Hang 'em high! Starting with the bureaucrats!!

Ken300D · #51 05-29-2009, 10:51 AM

If you get a jury "summons" questionaire in the mail, you can just shred it - throw it away. It is not a legal summons. They are going to be too busy to follow it up in most places.

If they do decide to make an example of people, I suppose they have to put more effort and money into it for awhile and make the summons "legal" by delivering them properly. This isn't done where I live.

I hear of places where the judicial system has had to get "militant" with the populace in order to collect jurors. Can someone explain how that is done? Surely it has to be more than simply mailing something to you.

Along that line, I have heard of court officers trolling through shopping center parking lots, walking up to people and handing them summons and collecting their ID information. Is that accurate?

Also, I just found this interesting tidbit:
http://www.originalintent.org/edu/juryintro.php

MTI · #52 05-29-2009, 12:51 PM

There's a difference between the initial questionaire and the notice of actual jury duty; however either one is required, upon proper delivery, to be responded to. Therefore, the advice of ignoring or destroying judicial notices are at one's own risk/peril.

Ken300D · #53 05-29-2009, 03:30 PM

Typically (where I am) if you do not respond to the initial questionaire, you do not get a further notice to report for actual jury duty. That is because they use the initial questions in a screening process.

However, it is important to define "proper delivery". First class mail is not proper delivery by itself. And if something comes to you via registered mail, you do not have to sign for it. If an officer of the court comes to your house with a summons and you are not there or do not answer the door, they can tape the document to your door - that is considered "delivered". But it is expensive to do that via a person.

Now if you somehow do not get the initial notice(s) by plain Postal Mail or otherwise dispose of them, my question is, how does the court choose to follow up further? I understand some jurisdictions do this - mine does not - so I want to know to what lengths they go in other places.

Ken300D

MTI · #54 05-29-2009, 03:33 PM

Ken, there is often a legal distinction between "proper delivery" and "notice" in most jurisdictions and the USPS is given quite the benefit of the doubt by courts in many circumstances.

Mistress · #55 05-29-2009, 03:39 PM

Kuan thank you posting this I need a good laugh.