I got my first summons

[lightbulbsun]

I've been summoned 6 times in the 9 years I've been eligible. I got out a few times for school, and I've never been selected. I just went a couple of weeks ago for grand jury and I'm so happy I wasn't chosen. I would have had to go every Thursday until June 12!

[lilibet]

Take a book. And check for any rules about electronics. I had district court jury summons last July and you weren't allowed to take in any sort of electronic - no phone, tablet, laptop, nothing. So I took a book. And then the entire jury pool got moved into the court room and you had to sit there listening to everyone being questioned and couldn't read or move around or anything. It sucked.

I didn't get picked though - it was a child porn/sexual abuse case and I've known multiple kids who were abused (thanks to my parents being foster parents for a while) and a couple people accused of abuse. I was really glad not to be picked, just from what they said in the intro the evidence would have been hard to hear.

Mil, fil, and I all got summons last year. Mil's was local, mine was about an hour away for district, and fil's was federal and about 2 hours away. None of us were selected. Dh so wants to be called for jury duty, he was jealous.

[styme46]

I got my first notice in October. Then I got sent a questionnaire to answer for a murder trial and I got super excited because I would LOVE to sit on a murder trial jury. Then I found out they were talking about sequestering the jury and the trial could take 5 weeks and I wasn't so excited. But I never got called to actually show up for jury selection. I was bummed but happy at the same time since I can't be sequestered with two kids and no husband at home. 

The trail only took a week and a half and I don't think they actually ended up sequestering the jury but it still would've been awesome!

[jodinia]

About 4 years ago I was called for the first time and it was for grand jury. It was 3 months (and a few cal backs aferwards) for 3-4days/week. I had a great group I was serving with and it was actulally a lot of fun and very interesting.

[blondemoment123]

I liked jury duty. It was painless and I got like $7 out of it

[lintscreen]

I get a summons every two years exactly. I'm a dork and love jury duty, but I never get picked to be on a jury.

[wowhead]

Mar 9, 2014 18:33:30 GMT -5 blondemoment123 said:

I liked jury duty. It was painless and I got like $7 out of it

Holy shit! $7?! This needs to be my new profession. 

[Captain Serious]

I really wanted to serve on a jury in my younger days. Now I usually cringe when I get a notice to appear, because I will never be chosen for a jury. (I have my masters in criminal justice, worked for a department of public safety, division of parole, and two state legislatures, my mother worked for a department of public safety, and my father was an administrator in several juvenile detention centers.) So I spend all day in a room waiting to be dismissed. It's the most boring thing ever, and often the environment isn't even conducive to reading.

The only time I was thankful I wasn't picked for a jury was the time they were selecting for a retrial in a capital case for the rape and murder of a little girl.

[Captain Serious]

Mar 9, 2014 15:28:46 GMT -5 v said:

Mar 9, 2014 12:33:11 GMT -5 moolarkey said:

I sat on a whiplash case. We all felt sorry for the plaintive, we had no doubt she needed the money she was suing for but she had pre-existing conditions. We absolutely poured over all of the evidence to see if there was any way we could find for her and we just coulnd't. The unanimous decision was for the defendant. The medical testimony about did me in, not gruesome but incredibly boring and hard to stay awake during.

H and I were both called for Federal Secret Grand Jury. We called and asked them if they realized they'd call 2 people married to each other. They believe that was the first time that had ever happened. With this kind of jury you call on Sunday night to see if you need to go down. We called and H needed to go about noon the next day but not me. He got a call that morning telling him not to come down. The next day it was all over the news, it was a huge Federal drug and money laundry case that they reached an agreement on.

One way to NEVER get to sit on a jury is to join the NRA. When it comes up that you belong to the NRA you'll get excused every time. I have a friend who belongs, for some reason he gets called for juries a lot. As soon as he mentioned he's an NRA member he's done.

That's not true.  First of all, it may not come up.  Organization membership isn't always part of the questionnaire.  Also, it might be relevant in, say, a gun possession case, but if you're brought into void dire for a contract dispute between a commodities trader and his broker, who would care?  

I was always told that being a lawyer is a pretty automatic out.  Nope -- I've been on a jury.

Yeah, I used to work with mostly lawyers, and they got picked fairly regularly.  I think it was part of a push the court system was under to not automatically exclude attorneys.

[blondemoment123]

Mar 9, 2014 18:55:10 GMT -5 wowhead said:

Mar 9, 2014 18:33:30 GMT -5 blondemoment123 said:

I liked jury duty. It was painless and I got like $7 out of it

Holy shit! $7?! This needs to be my new profession. 

Ha right!

[macmars45]

I got summoned for jury duty last October. I was also summoned in my hometown (in which I no longer live) at the same time. Over the course of 1.5 years (2011-2013) I was summoned twice in my hometown, once in my current city and once in a city I've never lived in. It was crazy.

The actual serving was ok. I got on a short (3 day) jury. The actual case was pretty boring really.

[iamali]

I used to get the summons often when I was in the Navy, but always sent it back that I was military and couldn't attend. Since then I've gotten called exactly once. I made it into the courtroom, but not the jury box.

I don't get why people hate it so much, yeah, definitely not the most interesting thing ever, but such an important part of our judicial system.

For the lawyers - do they usually automatically excuse you? In the one I viewed every person who was a laywer pretty much got excused first.

[circa1978]

I've always wanted to serve on a jury but every time I was summoned, I was a reporter. That always seemed to get me tossed, which is weird because it was my job to be objective. Or maybe they are just suspicious of people who get too amped about their civic duty.

[Deleted]

I got called for Grand Jury which means you need to be available for a month! UGH....I got a tip from someone and it worked...She told me not to ask to be dismissed because that only gets you a repreve...you HAVE to tell them when you can serve and then you MUST serve.
Once all the repreves and dismissals were done, that left the rest of us. Then they asked for volunteers. They needed something like 40 people. Well more than that raised their hands so they did a lottery for them and then the rest of us were excused and it counted as serving!! I was there less than 2 hours.

DH got called for Federal Jury duty for a month and it is about 60 miles from our house. you call Sunday night for the week and you find out if your number has to go. He had requested one day out of the month not to be available due to a previous commitment and he was excused for that day only. well, since it was a weekly call, his number was jumped over for that week! He never had to go! (omg..when you call, they dont say # 104 thru 199...they say # 104, # 105, #106......#199- they said EACH number!!!)

[psychmom]

I got out of my summons because I SAH with DS. I want very disappointed lol

[nahoku]

I'm sure I've told you all this story before, but it's a goody, lol.

I was the first person in my family to get summoned. I was 19 and living in a frat for the summer so I showed up tired and most likely hungover for the first day. I did get chosen to be on the jury and it wasn't a very interesting case and I really struggled to stay awake. Then I didn't even get to participate in what I think would have been the interesting part, deliberations, because I ended up being the alternate juror.

After the other jurors were dismissed, the judge called me back to his chambers b/c he likes to hear which way the alternate juror would have gone, but the first thing he said was "I understand you know my son!" I looked around the room and there were tons of family pictures that included a guy I went to HS/college with and had hooked up with a few times in the recent past. I had no idea his dad was a judge. "Oh. You're Scooter's dad?" Awkward!