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Your guess is correct.
Once you show up they fall in love with you.
They can't wait to see you again and again.
That is unacceptable. Everyone should have to serve once, then go down the list again. My husband has never been called and I have been called about six times. That is no accident. I was happy to serve when I could but was harassed and threatened when I could not. It was offensive because I had just done it. And my husband, and a couple of friends, never even been called. They have to make it fair, or have a system of paid professional jurors.
That is unacceptable. Everyone should have to serve once, then go down the list again. My husband has never been called and I have been called about six times. That is no accident. I was happy to serve when I could but was harassed and threatened when I could not. It was offensive because I had just done it. And my husband, and a couple of friends, never even been called. They have to make it fair, or have a system of paid professional jurors.
'harassed and threatened'?!
I find that hard to believe.
where I live, no one can be called twice within a three year period. after I served on the murder trial I got a notice again about a year later. I told them I had just served a year ago and they apologized and let me go.
I've seen many people give their reasons for not being able to serve, and not one of them was harassed or threatened. do you live in some backwater that doesn't care about their citizens?
My boss requested a postponement for that reason once, and not only did they say no, they got angry and threatened him with jail time for having the audacity to ask.
He's a pretty mellow and respectful person, so it couldn't have been the way he asked.
its possible that during the time your boss needed off was a tough time for them to get people to accept jury duty, but it still does not give them the right to abuse people.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dothetwist
Happened to both of us in AZ. We both served at the County courts, but Federal court was over 100 miles away, one way. We simply wrote the court that we shared 1 car and being in our 60s, we had medical appointments every so often. These were true statements. We were excused by the feds.
If you have a VALID excuse and don't lie or exaggerate, the courts will work with you.
When we moved to FL, we were both called to County courts in our first year....we both served. It was a 40 minute drive each way and we were OK with that. Neither of us took the pay.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LKJ1988
Just don't go.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dothetwist
I had a friend who took that stupid advice and the sheriff arrived at his home with a summons to appear before a judge to explain why he ignored his jury duty. DO NOT IGNORE a jury summons.
dot and i dont always agree, but in this case we absolutely do. if one is summoned for jury duty, the worst thing you can do is ignore the summons. in fact if you get a jury questionnaire and ignore it you will be hauled up to the jury commissioners office and you will have to fill out the questionnaire on their time rather than yours.
where I live, no one can be called twice within a three year period. after I served on the murder trial I got a notice again about a year later. I told them I had just served a year ago and they apologized and let me go.
I've seen many people give their reasons for not being able to serve, and not one of them was harassed or threatened. do you live in some backwater that doesn't care about their citizens?
as for professional jurors...NO, just no.
There are limited reasons one may be excused from jury duty. If you don't have one of the accepted excuses, they expect you to show up. If you get called every three years and your neighbor has never been called once in fifty years, there is a problem. Yes, they gave me a lecture about civic duty, and warned me about the penalty for ignoring the summons - threat and tried to make me feel guilty, even though I had done it several times already. People in bad circumstances have been forced to go (not just my area), the stories are horrendous.
Why do you suppose some people are exempt from being called and others are bothered every few years? Right.
I had a friend who took that stupid advice and the sheriff arrived at his home with a summons to appear before a judge to explain why he ignored his jury duty. DO NOT IGNORE a jury summons.
LOL, people always claim this happens but never provide any evidence. Appearing in front of a judge would create a public record, can you provide a link to this?
In reality, if the summons was sent via regular US mail, the court has no way to prove that you received it. Do I believe that one county sheriff and one judge with an authoritarian mindset would go to this trouble and expense to bother a person that skipped jury duty? - sure. To act like this happens in every jurisdiction nationwide as some kind of boogeyman to scare people into working for less than minimum wage for the government is ridiculous.
I will show up for jury duty when the judges, cops, prosecutors, etc. all work for the same $10 a day that jurors receive. That is the pay rate in my area and they don't reimburse for parking or lunch. So you are spending your own money to be their slave.
LOL, people always claim this happens but never provide any evidence. Appearing in front of a judge would create a public record, can you provide a link to this?
In reality, if the summons was sent via regular US mail, the court has no way to prove that you received it. Do I believe that one county sheriff and one judge with an authoritarian mindset would go to this trouble and expense to bother a person that skipped jury duty? - sure. To act like this happens in every jurisdiction nationwide as some kind of boogeyman to scare people into working for less than minimum wage for the government is ridiculous.
I will show up for jury duty when the judges, cops, prosecutors, etc. all work for the same $10 a day a juror gets paid.
when a jury summons is mailed to you, it is assumed that you received it by law. if you fail to appear, or if you fail to fill out the jury questionnaire, you are subject to being hauled up to the court to fill out the questionnaire or to plead your case before the judge for failure to appear for jury duty.
but this is a process crime, kind of like getting a repair order for a burnt out taillight.
when a jury summons is mailed to you, it is assumed that you received it by law. if you fail to appear, or if you fail to fill out the jury questionnaire, you are subject to being hauled up to the court to fill out the questionnaire or to plead your case before the judge for failure to appear for jury duty.
but this is a process crime, kind of like getting a repair order for a burnt out taillight.
You may be technically correct, but the courts do not have the resources to track people down. The worst that has happened to me is I had to also throw away the second request that I received in the mail. I have ignored every jury summons that I have received for more than 20 years. Not one phone call or sheriff visit in all that time. If I am ever hauled before a judge I will gladly pay the fine rather than waste days of my life serving on a jury. They are not even considerate about the process, no free parking, no free lunch, ridiculous rules about items you can bring with you, metal detectors, no breaks, etc. Jurors are basically treated like inmates, both are expected to work for about a $1 an hour.
You may be technically correct, but the courts do not have the resources to track people down. The worst that has happened to me is I had to also throw away the second request that I received in the mail. I have ignored every jury summons that I have received for more than 20 years. Not one phone call or sheriff visit in all that time. If I am ever hauled before a judge I will gladly pay the fine rather than waste days of my life serving on a jury. They are not even considerate about the process, no free parking, no free lunch, ridiculous rules about items you can bring with you, metal detectors, no breaks, etc. Jurors are basically treated like inmates, both are expected to work for about a $1 an hour.
i dont know where you live, but if you ignore a jury summons, a bench warrant is issued for you to appear. and that warrant follows you everywhere. for instance if you get pulled over by the cops, and they run your information, that warrant will pop up on you, and the cop can arrest you on the spot and hold you for failure to appear.
and depending on how many such warrants you have, and the mood of the judge in the case, you may get a bit more than a fine to pay. you may get hit with a contempt of court violation and have to spend some time in jail, up to six months in fact. can you handle no income for six months? getting fired from your job as a result? having hard time getting another job after prospective employers run your credit report and background check and find this on your record?
as for how jurors are treated, its actually not bad. for the most part you sit around in the jury room waiting to be called for possible empanelment on a jury. and you do get breaks, including a lunch break, and many jurisdictions do cover your parking as long as you parked in certain areas. as for what jurors get paid, so what? did you expect to get rich off jury duty?
as for the rules about what you can or cannot bring into the jury room, let alone the court room, again, so what? would you rather someone bring a gun into the jury or court room and shoot up the place? bring a book and read while you are there, its time off from work. or bring some school books and do your homework.
i dont know where you live, but if you ignore a jury summons, a bench warrant is issued for you to appear. and that warrant follows you everywhere. for instance if you get pulled over by the cops, and they run your information, that warrant will pop up on you, and the cop can arrest you on the spot and hold you for failure to appear.
and depending on how many such warrants you have, and the mood of the judge in the case, you may get a bit more than a fine to pay. you may get hit with a contempt of court violation and have to spend some time in jail, up to six months in fact. can you handle no income for six months? getting fired from your job as a result? having hard time getting another job after prospective employers run your credit report and background check and find this on your record?
as for how jurors are treated, its actually not bad. for the most part you sit around in the jury room waiting to be called for possible empanelment on a jury. and you do get breaks, including a lunch break, and many jurisdictions do cover your parking as long as you parked in certain areas. as for what jurors get paid, so what? did you expect to get rich off jury duty?
as for the rules about what you can or cannot bring into the jury room, let alone the court room, again, so what? would you rather someone bring a gun into the jury or court room and shoot up the place? bring a book and read while you are there, its time off from work. or bring some school books and do your homework.
They should pay minimum wage. If they charged plaintiffs a % of claims for frivolous lawsuits, not only would it cut down on the number of cases, it'd be easy to afford to pay minimum wage.
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