i remember my 1st time. was a los angeles court house. just regular court. we had 2 weeks of the duty. was a nice vacation for. had a balcony and just laid out on the balcony and relaxed. got called once for a jury but was kicked off the jury as i know several cops and several criminals so the lawyer let me go. now they only have to go 1 day and if not picked on a jury they are free to go until they are called again.
Yeah, I been to it a while back. Very boring. Bring an ipod or something to entertain you. You walk into a huge room of hundreds of people who just sit there. They call people by groups. "Numbers 50-100." That kinda thing.
Then you go into the court and are there with all the people. They will ask people at random certain questions to filter you out. Try to sound like you're biased if you don't want to be part of the jury. They basically pick out suckers. When I went they chose me. Say you're racist or whatever. Show bias. They won't pick you, even if it's obvious that you're trying to get out of it.
The whole thing is just boring basically. I remember going there early in the morning and leaving at 6pm. Most of it consisted of waiting and waiting.
Then you go into the court and are there with all the people. They will ask people at random certain questions to filter you out. Try to sound like you're biased if you don't want to be part of the jury. They basically pick out suckers. When I went they chose me. Say you're racist or whatever. Show bias. They won't pick you, even if it's obvious that you're trying to get out of it.
The whole thing is just boring basically. I remember going there early in the morning and leaving at 6pm. Most of it consisted of waiting and waiting.
I've gotten one of those jury notices about once a year for the last 25 years. The next time I call will be the first. I just have better things to do and I don't like the way they run things at the courthouse. There's way too much sitting around and waiting. They send me a follow up notice telling me they sent the first one and I better call. I throw that one out too. They can't do a thing to you unless they can prove you got some kind of notice. The only way they can do that is to serve you the notice in person. They won't do that because it costs too much. Besides, I may have action on a day game so I probably couldn't make it anyway.
Certified mail would work, but they don't go that far.
I shred jury duty notices.
Funny thing is they don't waste postage on me anymore. Wife responds, so she gets it every 3 years or so.
Shred the shit if don't want to go. One wasted day for nothing ( nearly 20 years ago) was enough for me.
I will never serve on a jury or respond to a REQUEST to be part of one.
I've had jury duty twice. The first case I had to actually be on a jury in a civil trial where 3 highway patrolmen were being sued for harassment of this man who was disorderly in a restraunt. They basically escorted him out the door for being drunk and disorderly and cussing up a storm. The guy that was suing was trying to take advantage of the Rodney King beatings that had just happened. He claims he got beat when they went outside and it caused him to have permanent eye damage. It turned out that he had terminal eye disease not related to any beatings. He was hoping for a little sympathy and some money to line his pockets.. But he didn't get it. After 5 days of this guy being his own lawyer and putting a lot of quack doctors on the witness stand and the defense refuting every one of them, we didn't award him squat. The judge called the jury into his chambers after the trial. The first thing he said was "wasn't this a big waste of time". I would have to agree. Especially since the judge said this same guy had tried to sue the police force on 3 seperate occasions before. The second time I went on jury duty I got pretty lucky and my name was never called. Even if your name is called, it's no guarantee you'll serve. You'll have to answer a few questions by the lawyers. If they don't want you, you could be free to go if they don't need anymore warm bodies in any of their other jury rooms for that day..
I actually got picked to be on a jury before. At first they pick 12 out of about 150 people so odds are it'll be one day and your done. The trial I was on took a week it started on monday and we made the desision on friday. I thought it was a good experience to be honest, plus I got paid for a full 40 hours from my job.
