Have you ever sat on a jury? What was the case?

Parent Cafe
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The age for exemption from jury duty varies by state. Typically it’s. 70, 73 or 75.

There is no upper age limit for federal jury duty, but generally if you are 70 or older, you can request to be excused and it will be granted.

When I was teaching many years ago, one of my colleagues was always smug about jury duty. Her husband was one of the leading defense attorneys in town. No prosecutor ever wanted her on their jury. She been called 3 or 4 times and had always been dismissed during voir dire.

Then she got a summons for federal jury duty. Her husband’s name/reputation didn’t carry any weight there. Not only was federal duty in the state capitol –a 70 minute drive each way– it also lasted 6 months whereas local jury duty was for 2 weeks. She was really peeved about that.

(For federal jury duty if you lived more than 100 miles from the federal courthouse, the feds would put you up in a hotel if you had to be in court the next morning. But she only lived 90 miles away so she had to drive up and back every day if she needed to be in court to hear testimony. She was very, very annoyed. )

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Karma.

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I was called and seated on a jury once in a stolen property case. We convicted him. He was driving a stolen car around town, but we could not convict on a weapons charge. A gun was found under the front seat, but that is where the car’s owner also kept it.

After the trial we found out he had a conviction in the neighboring county for the theft of the car. Our trial was only about possession of stolen property because he was arrested in our county.

I was really glad the trial I served on was not something heinous. I don’t think I would cope well with that. The defendant on the case I served on was pretty darn scary looking as it was. His mom testified and it was not helpful for him:

“He doesn’t have a key to my house any more.”

“Why is that?”

“Because I don’t want him to.”

Not a good look when your mama doesn’t trust you with the key to her house.

My husband was called on a paternity suit when he was 18! That was interesting. He was seated and had to serve. About 15-20 years ago he got called for the grand jury, but he was not seated.

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I’ve received 2 summons.

The first one was 20-some years ago and I had a 2 week old (I was nursing!) at home. I asked to speak to the judge privately during a break and he immediately excused me (I told him if I was going to stay any longer, I would need a place to pump… .and had brought my pump).

The second time, my kids were in ES and MS and my DH travelled … I was a stay at home mom. Again, I asked to speak to the judge and he excused me. I would have been seated for that - I had a really low number and I later found out, it was the largest $$ of damages in our county awarded. But it was about 3-4 weeks and it would have been difficult to rely upon friends and neighbors for carpools for school and sports for that long. I think b/c the youngest was 8 or 9, it was compeling, b/c the judge asked me the kids’ ages.

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I was summoned a few times when I had an infant and was nursing. I wrote it on the form and was excused. I was also summoned just before leaving OR and then CA, both times for good (done with school), so was excused.

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I have been summoned many times but the only times I was selected, the case was settled almost immediately after the jury was seated. It always felt a bit anti-climactic, but it is a part of the process. Once the lawyers saw who was on the jury, and what kind of issues and responses came up during voir dire, I guess they were more motivated to settle. The first time I went to jury duty, I was interested in the process and not at all disturbed about missing work as I was just out of college and in a job without much responsibility for how the work would get done without me. I really thought I was going to be seated on that case (a civil case) as the day wore on. I had been seated in the first batch and various potential jurors were dismissed and new ones brought in, over and over, and I was still sitting in the jury box. Finally one of the lawyers spent some time studying our questionnaires and used the last peremptory challenge to get rid of me. I was also dismissed for cause because something about my answers in voir dire or on the questionnaires gave one of the lawyers a reason to object to me and the judge agreed. It wasn’t clear to me exactly why, though. I wasn’t giving answers that were aimed at being dismissed. I tried to answer thoroughly and thoughtfully. It was a murder case. Most of the time when I’ve been summoned, my group has not been required to show up when I’ve checked the night before. It’s still kind of a pain just for the scheduling uncertainty but it’s OK. We have to have jurors if we’re going to have trial by jury.

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I moved into a house where the previous tenant had died. Mail service had been stopped for about 6 moths and within days of them resuming service there was a jury summons for federal court. This man would have been about 80 years old and the house was in San Clemente and the federal court house in downtown LA (at least 2 hours away during rush hour). I marked the envelop ‘deceased’ and never heard from them again.

What are they going to do to your spouses who died, issue a warrant for failure to appear?

I also just mark ballots (we vote by mail) as deceased and usually don’t get another ballot for the next election.

I am 67, have been registered to vote (in many places) have always had a license and almost always a registered car (the 3 methods they normally use to call jurors) and have been summoned exactly once. It was during covid, I did have to go to the court house, sit in assigned chairs that were 6’ apart and wait to be called. They called one group of 25 out of about 90 and the rest of us were release.

My daughter was called in the summer when she was in college (so about 19 or 20) and of course was picked. The judge I clerked for called those ‘jello jurors’ as they could be molded into any shape (opinion) the lawyers could influence as they had few preformed opinion.

And just to let you know, it seems like the court is only working 1/2 days, and they don’t have to get there until 10 am and are dismissed for long lunches or at 3 pm, but there are so many motions that the judge has to work on all day that the jury can’t hear, or witnesses are delayed, and people get sick (including lawyers). During trials, the judge and court personnel are usually putting in 10 hour days.

Best story I have was that mental health hearing were always held at 3 pm on Fridays because that’s when the doctors were available. So we had to pick a jury, take testimony, and charge the jury all as fast as possible. In these cases, there wasn’t a lot of discussion about jury instructions as it was almost always the same lawyers. So one case we did it and it was clear that the respondent was NOT going to stay on her meds but it was also clear that if she was on her meds as she was that day, she was fine (and not a danger to anyone). Her son, also questionable mental health, promised to help her.

Jury goes into the jury room, right off the courtroom (door entered back into courtroom) and we’re still in the courtroom deciding if we should order them dinner or ask them what they want and I (the bailiff) hear ‘knock knock knock’ and they say ‘We’re done.’ We couldn’t believe they’d even had time to pick a foreman! It was clear someone said ‘Anyone think she should be committed? No? Knock on the door.’ I don’t think it took 5 minutes. Friday night, 6 pm, they wanted to go home.

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My sil is a paralegal and was working for the plaintiff on a personal injury medical malpractice case. During the trial someone who worked in the court (I forget who) keeled over and fell unconscious to the floor. All 5 defendant doctors leaped to that person’s assistance and rendered aid. The judge declared a mistrial.

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Wow—in the years I’ve been in the legal system, I’ve never seen anything like that! The cases I’ve seen were much tamer and the vast majority settled instead of going to trial. The firm I worked for had an excellent reputation—good but fair and our word was golden. You said something and the court and other side could count on it.