Coffee anyone ?

Bruce

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Thanks for the coffee. I have jury duty today. From 8:30 till they decide they don’t want me at probably 5:00. Not one time have I ever been picked for a jury.
How often do you have to go? I was called when I was in college, at least they moved it to summer. Back then (and for all I know still is the same in So. Cal) you had to go EVERY day for weeks. Sit there and read or play cards or whatever waiting to be drawn for a possible jury seat. Only got seated once, heard the testimony in a divorce case, came back in the morning and they had settled overnight. Back to the boring wait. When DW was called some years ago she only had to go 4 times, about a month apart and 2 of those were cancelled. You call in and see if they need you to show up.

Sorry about the duckling Rob.
 

greybeard

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Here, you don't get called to jury duty after you reach age 65. I've been on several before that and looked forward to each one of them.
 

Baymule

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This is the second time in 4 years since we moved here. In Polk county, I was called in about every 2 years also.

Today there were probably over 300 people to start with. Then they started on the exemptions, college students, people that were caregivers for sick or elderly family, people with small children and no one to watch them, and so on. That whittled it down. They went through all these steps, everything took time. They had each person walk by, to get their card scanned by the computer. Everyone had to have a pay sheet filled out and how to be paid. You could claim your $6 or waive it or donate it to 1 of several options. I donated mine to foster kids. Each person had to walk by and turn in their pay sheet. Then the people who wanted to be paid had to line up to get their $6. Finally the judge came out and went over the exemptions again. People lined up again to get excused. All this took a couple of hours. Then they called out names of potential jurors. The court sent 20 people to a JP's office in Precinct 5, to be there at 2:00, they all left. Then they called out, starting with #1, people's names. #48 had left. OH NO!! What a dither of excitement, he left! It took probably 10 minutes to resume calling out names, up to #70. Then they had to go through the random selection process to replace #48. The rest of us were dismissed. I was out of there by 11 AM.

So once again, I was not chosen for jury duty. The look on some of the people's faces when they were called clearly showed that they did not want to be there. If I had need of a jury, I sure would want people who wanted to be there and not be angry at the waste of their time.
 

frustratedearthmother

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I guess I've won (or lost- depending on how you feel about it) the jury lotto several times. Many years ago I was chosen to be on a jury for a capital murder trial. We were to be sequestered for several weeks. I had teenagers at home - so I was all for it, lol. But, they did a plea deal right before trial started. Several years ago I was picked and sat on a jury. Short trial - lasted a couple of hours. Interesting way to spend an afternoon. Was called again a month or so ago and we were dismissed after a couple of hours. Our county pays $10! We also have the choice to keep or donate. I chose a women's shelter.
 

Alaskan

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We do the exemptions ahead of time... when you get your first postcard.

You are assigned a month... and before the month starts you have to fill out an online questionnaire.....to make sure you aren't exempt.

Then on your month you have to call in every evening...and you are told when to call back...or when to show up.

I think it is every 2-ish years.
 

promiseacres

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Coffee is on...
I have been on our counties list this past year.... and once other time since we moved... though this time the current judge doesn't see my lack of childcare options as an excuse. I definitely don't want to decide someone else's fate.... so far things have settled prior me having to go in..
Need to get chores done then start my online training for a job.
 

greybeard

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We do the exemptions ahead of time... when you get your first postcard.
Same here...to an extent...but the exemption choices on the mail-in card are limited and will still be reviewed...it's not an automatic bye.

Once we are selected to go on the small pool for specific case, (about 25-30 selectees) we would then go to a small empty courtroom, before the presiding judge for that case, and go thru the voir dire process, wherein both the prosecution and defense attorneys gets to decide whether or not they actually want you on the jury. (not all states do this)

Child care is not usually an automatic exemption, as it is viewed the same as if one was going to a job. There are exceptions but they generally expect parents to find a babysitter or temporary child care the same as if they would have to do in any other instance that the parent needed to be out of the household.
This is a duty and one of the very few (3) that all citizens of this country are expected to fulfill. Vote, pay their share of tax and serve on jury.
I've personally never been much on shirking any civic duty and have served on jury duty even as a single parent with 4 children at home. An exceedingly small price to pay to live and work free in this nation. Freedom, comes at a cost..in this case, just some time.
 
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