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<p>The problem is, you have to show up for Jury Duty in order to get dismissed from Serving on a Jury. In the OP’s case, D has a problem even showing up. Once you are there, even if you are selected (which is a low probability), most trials are over within a day or two.</p>
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<p>The context is people that would be out a thousand or multiple thousands, whether in their pocket, in billings for missing a day.</p>
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<p>Why don’t we just require a year of jury duty then?</p>
<p>We have a toll system in my state and EZ-Pass was added several years ago because waits at operator-booths were getting intolerable and spending money to increase the sizes of interchanges was seen as incredibly inefficient. So technology was used to save money and time, both that of the State and that of the Motorist.</p>
<p>The police in MA use license plate scanners that can scan an incredible number of license plates a day. I read an article on this this week. A police department bought a scanner for a cruiser for $18,000 and the payback was very quick as it found uninsured vehicles and vehicles with significant fines attached. These scanners are also used to solve crimes where they can look for cars in the area of a series of similar crimes.</p>
<p>One city that I visit regularly has installed a kiosk-style payment system for on-street parking. It accepts bills, change and credit cards. Other areas in the city only take coins and get jammed from time to time. The kiosk-style system means that you don’t have to always carry quarters and it means that you don’t have to deal with faulty meters.</p>
<p>My state has a website with a map that shows you where construction will be for the day. That construction information is sent to my navigation devices to compute better routes for me for travel.</p>
<p>I e-filed my return yesterday instead of going to the post office to mail it in. Saves postage.</p>
<p>The Jury system is still the same as it was what, 100 years ago?</p>
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<p>I think that this depends on the court and the reason why you can’t serve or if you are ineligible.</p>
<p>One more note on failed mail deliveries: my son lives in an apartment complex where there is a lot of turnover. There is more mail for past tenants than there is for him in the mailbox. We still receive mail for the people that occupied our home before we did. And we’ve been her for 25 years.</p>
<p>I don’t know if this is a PA phenomenon, but when I was called up, they paid me something under ten bucks a day, but they pointed out I could get discounted parking at $6/day. Don’t minimum wage laws or something similar apply?</p>
<p>It’s more of a stipend than a wage.</p>
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You never said that. You said
and thats simply unfounded and a response based on a huge stereotype.</p>
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<p>Others did. That’s called context.</p>
<p>BC, in #62, you cited several examples of government using modern technology to make their services more efficient and less expensive, and then you commented:</p>
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<p>Are you proposing that juries or the jury selection process be replaced by some sort of technology? I don’t understand.</p>
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<p>Are you familiar with online courses?</p>
<p>Yes … you’re suggesting that juries be selected online? Or that trials be conducted online?</p>
<p>Well, that is an interesting idea but I was thing of doing trials remotely via video, either live or delayed, and then doing deliberations via teleconference or even chatrooms.</p>
<p>So, two jury stories for your entertainment. </p>
<p>H’s great uncle, from the “old country”, came home from the first day of the lengthy criminal trial he was selected for and announced (you have to provide your own Yiddish accent, I can’t do it), “Feh, it’s about some lowlife who murdered his wife.” The jury system doesn’t always work as intended.</p>
<p>I got called for a malpractice trial involving a chiropractor. It was summer, a time when the courts in our area have a heck of a time getting anyone to show up for jury duty. And apparently they weren’t going to let me go no matter what. During my voir dire, it came out that 1) I was an attorney; 2) I was a long-time acquaintance of one of the lawyers in the firm representing the plaintiff; and 3) I was very skeptical of the many claims made for chiropractic. I was put on that jury and selected as forewoman before I could blink. Luckily for me, a settlement was reached a few hours before testimony was to begin. I suspect neither side felt terribly comfortable with the impartiality of the jury.</p>
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Not they didnt. Thats called BS.</p>
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<p>Seriously - you can’t read through five pages to find it?</p>
<p>I live in MA and have been summoned many times over the years for Jury duty. One time I was working FT and taking classes during the day for my masters. I asked to be excused when I was in a pool of possible jurers for a 6 to 8 week trial. I got the lecture from the judge about how it was my civic duty to participate and he would not excuse me even though it would mean missing classes for up to 2 months. I got lucky that the lawyer for the defendent felt bad for me and used one of his exemptions to excuse me.</p>
<p>There is a place in the courts for newer technology. In my home county, initial arraignment hearings are regularly done using video conferencing. The guys that get arrested over the weekend and who are locked up in county jail about 10 miles from courthouse are lined up in a hall out at the jail Monday morning in front of a video camera and the judge sits in his courtroom back in town and does video hearings electronically. It makes it easier not having to transport the inmates to the courtroom and seems to work out fine. </p>
<p>If I was being tried in court with a jury though, I’d want real jurors sitting right in the courtroom with me. I went to a bank ATM machine to withdraw $600 yesterday and the machine in error dispensed $620! Machines and technology aren’t perfect…I might not be on the lucky end in court with robots and computers instead of people jurors…I’d rather take my chances with jurors in court than machines.</p>
<p>Enough, BC. The only person who brought up Manhattan was YOU to which I and I believe Shrinkrap responded, (the latter to me as I was unclear in my response). If there is some post you would like to reference, feel free to post it. Otherwise please let it go.</p>
<p>Back to topic-- I wrote an article many years go for a Bar journal on Voir Dire. Interesting to see what the attorneys consider, or should consider in their jury selection. Do you suspect, MommaJ, that whenyou were seated as a juror, that that helped facilitate the settling of the case on the proverbial courthouse steps?</p>
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<p>Personally, I get annoyed when someone questions my honesty and it takes only a few seconds for that person to verify something that I said. Talk about lazy. It’s in the second page of posts.</p>
<p>If you would like to provide documentation that anyone other than you brought up Manhattan and the residents not caring about $250, BCEagle, you please go right ahead. I will wait. Its not there. No need to namecall . Feel free to provide documentation of the post to which you refer. The rest is just game-playing. And yes- its quite annoying and a waste of time. Please stop already.</p>
<p>Jury duty is one of the privileges and obligations of citizenship in our country. As one judge told us, if you are ever on trial, I am sure you would like an objective jury of your peers. IMHO, it is a very educational expreience, especially for a college student, to see democracy in action, lawyers at work, who the accused are in our society, and a different cross-section of society (and probably a different part of town). College students can defer the jury duty to one of their break times. They have as much time as anyone else. Do you think they will have more time when they are working? I think it sends your kid the wrong message to teach them tricks to get out of jury duty.</p>