Jury Duty Take Two

[marcusmarcusrc]

I was somewhat surprised to see a jury duty summons in my mail today. But I had my little sheet attesting to the fact that I served this year already, so I thought I was all set.

Until I was partway through filling out the form, and realized that it was a federal jury duty summons. And you need at least five days of state jury service to be exempt, and I only have three... Anyways, I'm going to be postponing until late summer/early fall so it won't interfere with the thesis, because I hear that federal jury duty can be somewhat onerous (not one day/one trial like Massachusetts state jury).

Edit: For federal jury duty you have to be on call for 15 days, though "usually" you only get called in once...

Comments

[unclenomer.livejournal.com]

Fun. Good luck! You must tell us all how it goes.
I just revceived my first jury summons ever (state, not federal).

[hannka.livejournal.com]

cool :) maybe you'll end up with a long story like 12 angry men :)

[ilai]

Wow, they're getting you all at once this year. You'll get to enjoy the scenic courthouse down on the waterfront!

[fanw.livejournal.com]

You are certainly doing your citizenly duty this year!

[marcusmarcusrc.livejournal.com]

The jury lottery is odd. I got my first summons the week after I turned 18, and then a 13 year gap before getting 2 this year. We'll see if I go three for three on actually sitting on trials...

[marcusmarcusrc.livejournal.com]

I would much prefer a _short_ story. 3 days for my January trial was just about right, really.

[remcat.livejournal.com]

Huh, I got my state and federal jury summons in the same year too. Both times I was dismissed though.

I believe with the federal jury duty, if they call you in -- that day of waiting around is considered sufficient to fulfill duty, no?

[marcusmarcusrc.livejournal.com]

If I read the forms correctly, then as long as you are on-call for the 15 days, you have fulfilled your duty even if they never call you in. But I think they can call you in multiple times during that 15 days if they want to. I think you could even theoretically serve more than once in that 15 days, but there I could be totally off base.

[marcusmarcusrc.livejournal.com]

And apparently, I didn't read the form correctly. You are right - if they call you in, that is "normally" the end of your requirement (unless you are seated on a jury, of course)

[medyani.livejournal.com]

So I'm intrigued by the implication that you are likely to be picked from the pool of potentials again -- are lawyers attracted to the aura of fairness and virtue you radiate, or is the pool, ahm, impoverished? :)
I myself have been summoned twice (since I started staying in the country long enough for them to "call" me) but neither time has there been a trial to serve on. I guess that's a "virtue" of where I live, that is if you don't want to do your civic duty. I kinda do, if only for the experience!

[marcusmarcusrc.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm not willing to lie to get out of jury duty, which sets me apart from some percentage of the population. And at least in the two trials that I've been on, the lawyers haven't used their peremptory challenges very much. Though I've always been told that over-educated types get kicked off first, I have seen no evidence of this.

[antihip.livejournal.com]

I was called for jury duty in grad school, and was twice empaneled and twice removed via challenge. (To be fair, there were other contributing factors, I think: the first was for a medical malpractice suit, and my sister was in medical school [and said fact was communicated to the judge/lawyers during questioning]; the second was a sexual assault or harassment case, of a young woman against two young men, and I was fairly certain that the defense would want to remove as many youngish women from the jury as possible.)

Opinion in grad school was fairly split on whether over-educated types were removed: for every person like me who was challenged off, there was somebody else who served on a jury.