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<p>Strawman.</p>
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<p>I didn’t namecall. I described behavior.</p>
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<p>It’s the one where some stated that the feel sorry for people that aren’t compensated for their financial losses borne by jury duty.</p>
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<p>I never stop.</p>
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On THAT we agree. </p>
<p>Now back to topic (or trying… again) I was called to federal jury duty several years ago. Was actually quite ineresting. The voir dire for that involved asking preliminary questions to the whole group brought into the courtroom, and there were a few of us who stood up frequently when they asked “does anybody… <<fill in=”" the=“” blank=“” question=“”>>> In one case one of the defense attorneys shouted out a hello to me, as we’d worked together on another case. It was entertaining. And no I was not seated on a jury.</fill></p>
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<p>Then why don’t we require a year of service?</p>
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<p>And people always get an objective jury of their peers? I think that most people on trial would prefer the best legal representation that money could buy. Why don’t we provide that?</p>
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<p>And you can just visit a courtroom for a couple of hours on your own schedule to do this.</p>
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<p>The numbers of people unemployed or that have dropped out of the workforce as discouraged workers is in the tens of millions (I’ve seen numbers from 15 million to 90 million). There are a ton of threads on college graduates that are unemployed or underemployed - something like 50% of 2012 graduates. Are you assuming that all college students are working today?</p>
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<p>Do you ever drive over the speed limit?</p>
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<p>Interesting that in your area the foreperson is selected before the trial. Does the judge decide that, or do the jurors have a pre-testimony meeting, or how is that done? In our area, that’s not done until deliberations begin, which of course is at the end of the trial.</p>
<p>This was a long time ago, and I don’t recall the details. I know the upcoming responsibility gave me a stomachache. Even in a non-criminal setting, having someone’s future in your hands is a heavy burden. As for whether my presence hastened a settlement, it’s impossible to really tell. But most civil cases settle anyway. I imagine the percentage of people summoned to jury duty who actually end up serving on a trial is very small. In our jurisdiction, the summonses go out long before the docket is set, so there’s a process by which you can call in or check online the night before and see if you actually need to show up. Most times, you don’t. And even if you do, there’s a good chance you’ll be waiting around for hours, only to be told to go home at about 2 PM.</p>
<p>One of my sisters is a mediator for the court system and her job is to get parties to settle to reduce court expenses. That seems to be a more efficient use of resources (when it works) than grabbing a bunch of people for a courtroom trial.</p>
<p>She is quite busy with her work.</p>
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I would too. There are a lot of subtleties that get missed when videoconferencing including body language, evasive looks in the eyes, and other cues that would be missed. It’s also much easier to be distracted and to be multi-tasking with something else rather than paying 100% attention.</p>
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IMO this is a high and mighty minded unreasonable judge and it’s this kind of attitude that makes some people do what they can to get out of jury duty. He’s not helping the court system, he’s hurting it.</p>
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That’s really a strange one.</p>
<p>I have a question - do lawyers ‘typically’ get dismissed from from the jury by either the judge or one of the lawyers?</p>
<p>I’m an engineer and head a software development group and it seems that the lawyers aren’t crazy about having an engineer in the jury. I’ve always been fairly summarily dismissed by one of the lawyers even when it seemed that my answers would be appealing to them - other than that I was an engineer who tends to think very logically and pays attention to technical details and is unlikely to be swayed by arguments appealing to people’s emotions.</p>
<p>One way out of jury duty:</p>
<p>Attorney: Are any of you related to law enforcement personnel?</p>
<p>Me: ~raises hand~ My dad’s a cop.</p>
<p>Prosecutor: ~eyes light up~</p>
<p>Defense: The defense would like to thank Mrs. VillageMom for her time and excuse her from further service.</p>
<p>I was really disappointed because I’m one of the few who is fascinated by the idea of being on a jury.</p>
<p>My dd registered to vote as soon as she turned 18 (at home) and then re-registered to vote at school so she could vote in person. Her school is in OH, where it actually mattered, whereas home is IL which had the results called within minutes of the polls closing. If she got a jury summons at school, she’d have no way to get to court and would obviously miss classes. Hopefully she won’t have to deal with that. </p>
<p>I, on the other hand, get called for jury duty fairly regularly. I’ve served on 2 juries, forewoman for 1, was dismissed after questioning once and have spent several days in waiting rooms before being dismissed. I’m happy to serve, although I’m not sure how I’m a “peer” for some of those on trial. </p>
<p>The last time I served was on a first degree murder trial at a courthouse in a rough neighborhood (26th and Cal for Chicagoans). After finding a gang leader guilty of first degree murder at 11PM on a Friday night, the guards escorted us to our cars, but we then had to drive through the neighborhoods to get to the highway to get home. I was terrified and my husband was pretty unhappy waiting for me to get home safely. Frankly, the whole experience was unpleasant including the “peers” in the jury box making all kinds of excuses and inflammatory statements to get out of serving*, the fresh air we were allowed while surrounded by guards in the jailhouse yard with inmates yelling at us, and the prison food they served us (seriously, the courthouse cafeteria was under construction) for lunch and dinner. </p>
<p>I was just summoned to that courthouse again, and postponed my service date and wrote a letter requesting a change of courthouse. I have no intention of serving at that location again. </p>
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<li>For those who think making inflammatory statements will get them out of jury duty, I can tell you that about 4 of my fellow jurors during that last trial had made one of those statements. There were also an incredible number of people that had plane tickets and doctor appointments that they’d waited 2 years for planned for the next day. Some of those were excused, some not. I can tell you that even your fellow jurors can tell when you’re just trying to get out of serving.</li>
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<p>Around here you’re not getting dismissed because you’re an attorney or your family member is a police officer. On the jury with me was a woman who’s husband was a DA for the county, one guy was an attorney himself, and my friend who has a husband who is a criminal court judge in our county was selected for a criminal jury. I actually had a conversation with a judge during questioning about that same judge friend where she told me to say hello to him. Still didn’t get me excused.</p>
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<p>How do you know that these would work against your favor?</p>
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<p>So getting a bunch of people into a room at a particular place and time providing inconvenience would result in jurors that are not distracted and/or multitasking and/or sleeping?</p>
<p>How do you know that this would work for you or against you?</p>
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<p>I found a police officer a few years ago to report an accident on an exit ramp (I witnessed the accident but couldn’t physically get to where it was). I drove to the next exit planning to call the police but there was a police car already there (he had just pulled someone over at a gas station so maybe he got lucky) and I told the officer about the accident. He took care of it. Some weeks later I received a call from our local DA and he said that I was going to be called as a witness at the guy’s trial (apparently drunk-driving). He told me the days involved and I said that I would be out of the country and that I could provide him with days that I would be available. He told me not to bother - he would work out a plea-deal. My guess is that most cases work like this or else our court system would be clogged.</p>
<p>Thats really scary, MSHSMOM. Glad you got home safe.</p>
<p>When I was called for federal jury duty, there was an attorney there in jury duty as well, who happened to represent a fairly well known local politician who got into some hot water with charges of drug use, etc. During the group vior dire, he (the attorney) and I were like a tag team, frequently raising our hands/standing up when they asked many of those questions. We didn’t get dismissed, but we didnt get selected.</p>
<p>bceagle:</p>
<p>My comments were generalized ones. Stepping back, if we’re looking for truth, justice, and the American way, being able to read body language when listening to testimony is important for jury members, judges, and any innocent parties. You can’t really do that via videoconferencing, and I’ve been in many video-conferences.</p>
<p>And yes, being in the courtroom would result in much less distractedness than doing it via video-conferencing - no cell phones, no people knocking on the door, no dog that needs to go out, no laptop to read email or play on CC, not text messages, IM, and the list goes on and on. If you ever do video-conferences I’m sure you know what I mean.</p>
<p>I do think something should be done to decrease the wasted time of people called for jury duty. In my area, when one is called they ‘must’ go to the courthouse the first day. If they’re not impaneled the first day then they’re done with the duty but they just killed that day regardless. And again, by my rough calculation, only about 18% actually ended up serving on the jury which seems incredibly inefficient.</p>
<p>I also don’t like the cavalier attitude of the courts and some judges who think being a member of a jury trumps any other obligations an individual might have and is inherently more important than anything else that individual might be doing. It isn’t, plain and simple.
Some courts and judges are relatively decent about it and some aren’t with some examples by posters on this thread.</p>
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<p>Some people may be able to read body language and some people may be able to persuade others with clever use of feigned body language. I thought that you stated that you wanted to not let emotional arguments color analysis. Isn’t this something that body language can do? In the abstract, wouldn’t plain text be better? We could then filter out our personal bias against the defendant and witnesses.</p>
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<p>I’ve only served on two juries, but I can promise you that in neither case did any juror ever multitask or sleep.</p>
<p>bceagle,</p>
<p>Reading body language isn’t speaking to emotions. We all pay attention to more than just the words when we interactively listen to someone. Police officers pay attention to body language and inflections, judges do when deciding cases and trying to determine which one’s lying, lawyers use it when selecting jury members, parents use it when trying to determine if their kids are telling the truth or how they really feel about something, etc. Even dogs react to and exhibit body language.</p>
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<p>How do you know that?</p>
<p>I can sit in on a meeting and be working on software in my head (I used to play simultaneous chess blindfolded). The only problem is if someone asks me a question that takes a little effort to answer.</p>
<p>I had a look at some images of courtrooms on Google Images. Many jury rooms aren’t the best for ergonomics. It looks like some jurors may have to turn their heads back and forth in a range of 90 degrees to look at the witness and the attorney going back and forth unless the attorney walks up to the witness stand. Some courtrooms have chairs that swivel but some also have plain old wooden chairs.</p>
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<p>Yes, I used to watch that Lie To Me too.</p>
<p>But one could have training and coaching to overcome a lot of this. The show had examples of certain kinds of personalities where they could fool an expert on body language.</p>
<p>One could also use body language to imply that they are lying so that others believe that they are aren’t telling the truth.</p>
<p>I suspect that you believe that body language is generally biomechanical. Would you agree that bias is as well?</p>
<p>It would be more reasonable if people who would be inconvenienced or suffer a lot are given a pass if requested. Someone who is self employed or whose employer doesn’t pay during jury duty, a student who can demonstrate he has classes, someone who doesn’t have any reasonable transportation to the court house - people like these ought to be excused if they ask for it. If the system doesn’t, I think morally/ethically they have the right to try to get out.</p>
<p>Also don’t understand why the compensation seems to be frozen at levels that is a joke - they don’t make the court assigned attorney work for 8 bucks a day; they don’t make the judge and court staff work out of the goodness of their hearts for the the betterment of society - it’s one thing for people like me for whom there is no financial hit but an inconvenience in accumulated work that can be treated as a responsibility to society, but it’s patently unfair to someone whose work is not only impacted, but they need to take a financial hit too.</p>
<p>bceagle,</p>
<p>Your endless arguing is making me yawn - now there’s some body language. ;)</p>