Jury duty question (driver's license, free, living in, kids)

[AksarbeN]

Funny how a “warrant” always gets your attention,,,,, and the bad part is that a policeman had to discover you had a warrant out on you. They have such better record keeping these days then years ago.

[I LOVE NORTH CAROLINA]

When I opened the summons I have to admit, my first thought was I'm not going, not because I don't want to serve on a jury, but because I don't want to go to downtown Houston for me it's a nightmare down there. But after thinking about it I know I have to go, I could never lie about it or just ignore it, so I will be going.

[ScranBarre]

I'm so sad. I have an intense interest in politics and the legal system of our nation, yet I've never been summoned. What gives? Do they not like folks from Scranton? (Sniffle, sniffle).

[AksarbeN]

Maybe you don’t have any crime in Scranton?







Or they never catch the bad guys?

[brokencrayola]

I have been sent jury duty summons, hate it! I live and hour from town. Last time was a few years ago. I called the courthouse and told them I have a 2 yr old and had no one to watch her (which was true). They said tuff luck you need to come. I arrived with my 2 yr. old daughter. They were NOT happy but I said I called and told them I had a child and no one to watch her and they said to come anyway. they sent me home and that was that.

[HighPlainsDrifter73]

I got called twice when I lived in Cook County 15-20 years ago. I ignored it both times. I figured that if it didn't come certified mail, there's no proof I received it. Several years after that, I moved out of the county. Never heard anything about it and I've been pulled over several times since then, so I guess I'm OK. Besides, I just didn't want the hassle of going into Chicago and was very busy at work.

I have friends that refuse to register to vote since many here think that they pull potential jurors from the voting roles - don't know how true that is.

Maybe we need to have 'professional' jurors. Have a group of people that actually want to participate instead of avoiding it. I'm sure there's a lot of people that like it and have time on their hands. They could be paid a decent wage for their service. Just a thought.

[newyorkjetsfan74]

Originally Posted by HighPlainsDrifter73

I got called twice when I lived in Cook County 15-20 years ago. I ignored it both times. I figured that if it didn't come certified mail, there's no proof I received it. Several years after that, I moved out of the county. Never heard anything about it and I've been pulled over several times since then, so I guess I'm OK. Besides, I just didn't want the hassle of going into Chicago and was very busy at work.

I have friends that refuse to register to vote since many here think that they pull potential jurors from the voting roles - don't know how true that is.

Maybe we need to have 'professional' jurors. Have a group of people that actually want to participate instead of avoiding it. I'm sure there's a lot of people that like it and have time on their hands. They could be paid a decent wage for their service. Just a thought.

you're idea sounds very good. that way they can leave the people who dont wanna serve on a jury alone!

[shuke]

Originally Posted by newyorkjetsfan74

you're idea sounds very good. that way they can leave the people who dont wanna serve on a jury alone!

Superficially, it sounds like a convenient solution. But think it through for even a little bit, and you'll find lots of problems. For starters, the idea of a jury is to be judged by our peers. By having a pool of professional jurors, you could possibly be building another de-facto political office because those jurors could then have power to interpret laws the way they feel they should be intepreted. The job of being a juror could become a powerful position since jurors could inject their own interpretations of the law across the board on any cases being presented to them. By having jurors selected at random from the public, they may still tend to inject their own views into the mix, but if it were done on any consistent basis, there could be some argument that those views actually reflect public policy, rather then just the personal opinions of a few jurors.

Next, what kind of people would be selected for jury duty? I I wouldn't be volunteering to be a professional juror unless they could at least match what I'm getting paid right now. But I bet there are a lot of hoodlums who would be willing to take jury duty - especially if they could spring their hoodlum friends and get paid for it. And on civil trials, how fair of a shake would employers get in labor disputes or workplace injuries if the juries were composed by a bunch of people who may have had problems keeping a job or who had gotten hurt on the job?

So that idea really doesn't fly.

[movingtohouston]

Originally Posted by I LOVE NORTH CAROLINA

When I opened the summons I have to admit, my first thought was I'm not going, not because I don't want to serve on a jury, but because I don't want to go to downtown Houston for me it's a nightmare down there. But after thinking about it I know I have to go, I could never lie about it or just ignore it, so I will be going.

I just got one for houston too.... No way was I driving downtown during rush to get there by 8 am. Please then you have to pay to park too. They don't reimburse you enough for that. If you look on the form they give you all the legitimate excuses to get out of it. For me I still have kids at home so I just went online and got excused.

[I LOVE NORTH CAROLINA]

Originally Posted by movingtohouston

I just got one for houston too.... No way was I driving downtown during rush to get there by 8 am. Please then you have to pay to park too. They don't reimburse you enough for that. If you look on the form they give you all the legitimate excuses to get out of it. For me I still have kids at home so I just went online and got excused.

Fortunately I don't have to be there till 12:15, of course that will mean evening traffic, but I'd rather deal with that than morning traffic and getting up so early.
Last time I was in school and got excused for that, this time I have no excuse I can use