So, after 35 years of avoiding civil responsibility;
I have received a summons for Jury service for the United States District Court. After checking with the office where I’ve discovered that I will be payed full salary by the office for up to 20 days of service, I have opted not to seek exemption.
I will be on call for a month from February 3 through March 3.
The process begins with a Questionnaire that establishes your residency, competency in English (which makes me question whether I really am a peer of the people on trial), profession, age, race, and if you are exempt from serving.
Apparently, by law you are required to put your age, sex, race, and SSN. Which is interesting considering all the laws that say that no one should ask you for that information.
Humourously, I think that I might be able to claim exemption if so moved. One question asks if you are a professional (Doctor, lawyer, clergy, teacher) I am ordained clergy in my church and am in fact performing a Mass during that time period. But, that is on a Sunday and all my prep and rehearsal time is in the evening.
I will be making $40/day if selected to serve. Which is interesting because it means that the value of a juror is far below poverty.
The dress code (sigh) is business wear. Men must wear shirts with a collar and casual or dress slacks. No open toed footwear, tennis shoes, or jeans. I think I’ll wear my russian collar. Though I’m tempted to wear something with victorian frills as it is a button-down dress shirt with a collar.
So, today the paperwork goes in the mail. In 10 days I call to verify that it was received. Then, the evening after the groundhog is sorting through the crisis of his shadow, I start calling for 30 days to find out if I am going to be among the 30% of the people picked to listen to a pair of lawyers lie to me.
More as this adventure unfolds.
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Fitness to serve, etc.
If you desire to serve (and it seems that you do, given the comments above), is it in your best interest to look normal?
Should it matter? Do you think it will?
Re: Fitness to serve, etc.
Well, to be honest, the frilly, victorian is really just a temptation. The Russian collar is a plain white button down with a simple, non-tabbed collar. Here is a picture of the shirt.
I will be glad to look the part. But I refuse to betray my beliefs and ideals. So, this could be an interesting learning experience about self and government.
Re: Fitness to serve, etc.
Which motivates a whole set of questions:
Do you think you should serve on a jury? Would you make a good jurist? What makes a good jurist? How should a lawyer, judge, etc. pick out good jurists?
Though jury duty is considered a large part of “the American way,” I’m not entirely convinced that it’s in the best interests of all parties. Just as I’m not sure that the adversarial (sp?) systems of lawyers & judges works very well.
Re: Fitness to serve, etc.
Having seen the system from the jury box once, I’m pretty sure that should I ever be accused of a crime I would be better off without a jury. The judge, at least, is probably more resistant to BS.
Wow, $40 a day. It’s gone up. It used to be $5 which didn’t even pay for parking.
I loved jury duty. It was the most fascinating thing I’ve ever participated in. It’s amazing how people will trip themselves up and expose things they never meant to expose. (And it wasn’t the lawyers either.)
Have fun!
Payment
All jurors receive $40.00 per day, and $0.365 per mile, round trip.
I think the rate might be because this is Federal Court and not State or Local. This might be a far more involved case that the average. Which again is intriguing. This is complimented by the fact that work will be paying me full wages up to 20 days.
Re: Payment
It was Federal Court that I did too, and it was a good thing my employer paid my full wages while I was gone (which was two full weeks). This was over 10 years ago though.
Re: Payment
10 years. It’s nice to think that at least something is seeing a raise in wages 😉
anal-retentive fact spewing
The mileage for 2003 is .35/mile and will be .37/mile in 2004.
I have to do NSF reimbursal and we have to use the Federal Government rates.
Nice icons, BTW.
And on an unrelated note
I absolutely adore your icons.
Re: And on an unrelated note
Thank You!
And the next time I see you, you’ll get a bodacious hug!
Re: And on an unrelated note
I’m now tempted to fly back north this weekend 🙂
Re: And on an unrelated note
haha
Let it build up. It will be that much more special when it happens. 😉
Re: And on an unrelated note
Oh, that’s how it always starts. A little tension here.. a little waiting there. Then, it all comes out to be a major hug. 😉
Re: And on an unrelated note
Well, it’s one of MY Special hugs afterall.
*giggle*
hey! I only got paid 15$
Concerning cost…
See my previous reply in the thread.
Re: Concerning cost…
Okay, that makes sense.
Re: Concerning cost…
Yeah, you got paid out of our property taxes and the county’s cut of the state taxes. Our Brother will be getting paid out of our 1040’s.
Re: Concerning cost…
dude.. your phone’s down at work.. call me
The SSN is so they can report the wages you’ll earn to the IRS.
I never try to get out of jury duty; I see it as my obligation, as a person who’ll actually think instead of just believing the more eloquent lawyer, to do what I can to raise the cluefulness of the juror pool. I haven’t participated in a verdict yet, but I’ve been picked twice (once as an alternate, and once on a case that then settled).
Been in the pool, never got empanelled. The judge was in fact very clear that the fact that a jury could be empanelled, that the case could go to trial, was an important part of whether there would be a settlement (same same in civil cases or copping a plea in criminal cases). Most cases, of course, never do go to trial, but the fact that one CAN is the iron club over everyone’s head that urges the culpable to offer settlement and the guilty to cop a plea.
(Sadly, the innocent may often settle or take a plea as well, to avoid the danger and expense of trial)
In this case, it was a civil case that sounded like it was a few years old (so they’d presumably tried and failed to settle). They swore us in (cue side rant about religion in the courts) right before lunch, after telling us that it would last about two weeks (ouch). We came back from lunch and were dismissed. I don’t know if we were a particularly scary-looking jury or what (it did include me, after all 🙂 ), but something about having twelve actual bodies ready to go motivated a previously-elusive settlement. Unfortunately, they couldn’t tell us any more about what happened.
At least you can call in. I had jury duty earlier this year, and you had to go sit in the basement of the court building all day. I was called into one jury and dropped by a lawyer (one of 2 people kicked out) and was alternate on another that was going to take 2 months, and I got out because I had two major equipment installations at work (one from Boston, one from Sweden) that nobody else could take care of. I got paid like $20 a day, which sucked, but parking was free and I got to go home early 2 days. Really boring.
There’s a dress code? :snickers:
Bring a big book, a big book.
There’s a dress code? :snickers:
I was wondering about this… I tried to get off cause of financial hardship. How am I supposed to wear “dress code” if I can’t afford a pair of slacks, etc ? (I have a couple of nice outfits, I just want to be an asshole about it). I wear surgical scrubs at work so that’s not an issue. And what if I’m on a motorcycle? They expect me to wear my pink taffeta?
$40 a day is below the poverty line?! It’s more like $40 a week here.. off on a tangent but still..
Call me. Tell me whether you want to be on the jury, or whether you want off the jury. (I would pick the former, personally.) I can give you some pointers.
Ugh. *shudders* I’ve been called for Jury duty twice now and both times I’ve intentionally managed to make myself completely unsuitable during the questioning phase of it.
And $40? They only offered us $12!
The cheating bastards!
$40 and I might have considered it.