Is it strange that I kinda want to be on a jury?

[mjr]

Or at least experience "Jury Duty", even if I don't get picked?

I don't know why. I guess for the experience of doing so.

Though I don't think a whole lot happens where I live, and our county isn't that populous (approx 150K people).

Early in our marriage, my wife got a summons for Jury Duty...we're both registered to vote, and we both vote (which I understand is a requirement to be selected).

I dunno...

Anybody gotten jury duty? Did you get selected? What was it like?

[Crossbow]

YEARS ago (aka, back when I was in college), I was called. I had to defer once because it was during finals, but once that was done, I went willingly.

Turned out it was a lawsuit following a motor vehicle accident between a motorcycle and a minivan. The attorneys jury selection were looking for people biased toward one or the other and excluding them. I was picked and sat through the case. Took 3 days. We ended up finding for the defendant (minivan) in this case, since there was enough evidence that the motorcycle rider was not in full control of his bike at the time of the accident.

[Android Kaeli]

I've been selected for jury duty three times, once for traffic court and twice for civil. The traffic court I had to be there every day but wasn't selected and the first civil court I had, the only trial for the week was settled after we had a fifteen minute break.

The third time I had it was this year, and I got selected for a criminal case. Made all of us sick to our stomachs because of the case itself because of the subject involved, in which a young child was involved. Won't go into details because this is not the site for it, but needless to say the defendant most likely won't see the light of day for a good long while.

[EricKei]

I've been brought in for jury selection...5, maybe 6 times in the past 25 years, I think. Only got as far as the initial jury selection/weed out people leaning toward one side or the other once, did not get picked. As our system (was back home) is set up such that reporting at all satisfies your requirement for 2 years, I just had little more than a handful of excruciatingly boring days. They did let us bring in stuff to read, though (in dead tree format).

[Ironclad Alibi]

I've had jury duty four times. Two before I retired and two after. I sat on two juries.

The first one was for dunk and disorderly behavior. An old guy had fallen off the wagon, got drunk, and wandered into a fast food restayrant what a cop was having lunch with a friend. He started pestering the cop for some help and the cop arrested him. I took about 30 seconds of deliberation to find him innocent.

The second time was a civil suit, dental malpractice. We found for the dentist. AS a result I learned more about periodontal disease than I ever wanted to know.

I didn't get picked for a jury the other two times.

When I was working, since I worked for the government, I was on paid jury leave. I think not being paid by their employer is the main reason people don't want to serve jury duty.

Where I live jury duty cycles every 5 years. It's about time to be called again.

[Victory Sabre]

I've only been called in twice for Jury Duty, and never selected. I really have no desire to serve, and highly doubt that I'd ever be selected to serve.

[MoonCat]

I've been called three times, the last time this past July, but I've never gotten on a jury. This time I never even got to the courthouse, they apparently found everybody they needed among the first 60 people.

The first two times, as soon as they heard I work for the daily newspaper, I'm out the door, because they don't want to take the chance that I might have heard all the details about the case already from the reporters - which is nonsense because I have never been privy to any more information about news stories than the average reader, but there you go.

[EricKei]

In the US, at least, if the employer does not pay you for a day of JD, the Jury Pool people do -- just not very much.

[jedimaster91]

I had jury duty a couple years ago. Biggest waste of time ever. I have a healthcare degree that is heavily physiology based, which pretty much keeps me out of any murder trial. I was in the pool for a couple murder cases and when they asked about specialized knowledge and I told them my job, attorneys were furiously scribbling notes--which they do for everyone, but I like to imagine next to my number they wrote ABSOLUTELY NOT. One judge kept the entire pool until 6 or 7pm the first day while the lawyers picked the (un)lucky few who would actually sit for the trial. It was a pretty high profile murder case and I was getting pretty anxious as I was on call for work that night (and told the judge as much when asked about any scheduling conflicts). Call started at 430pm and I felt so bad for my coworker who covered for me since I couldn't leave. I did end up actually on a jury for a weapons possession charge. Except the state royally screwed up by not disclosing some testing done on the weapon and the judge declared a mistrial.

So I spent two weeks basically doing nothing, got paid a piddly amount for my trouble, and reaffirmed my intense dislike of criminal defense attorneys.

I also found out I was pregnant the morning of the last day I was there, so there's that I guess, lol.

[Teysa]

I've had my name pulled out of the hat a few times but I've only served once. In fact, I was supposed to serve in June. I had to email them and tell them that I'll be in Alaska until November. They gave me a new date, but guess what. I'm still going to be in Alaska at that time. Oh, well, if they want to pay the $500 + to get me off the island, and my airfare back to Texas, I'll be happy to serve.

[taxguykarl]

I had jury duty six times. In three of those I just waited in the jury holding area (after viewing a video on the importance of jury duty and an overview of the process) and was sent home (in one of those, I finished reading Ayn Rand's tree-killing magnum opus-now my favorite novel).
On one occasion, Mrs. TGK & I each had jury duty within a month.
The first was a battery case, in which the defendants changed their pleas to guilty when we were being screened for biases. Another was drug-related and I got bounced and my last jury stint was the summer before and I was bounced (see also here).
The only time that Mrs. TGK did not get sent home was this civil case.
No I don't think it's weird to want to be on a jury. After all it is a citizen's duty.

[Gerrinson]

I've got jury duty coming up soon. I've never been selected for a trial, though I've been called 7 (8?) times now.

The closest I came to being on a trial was in my early 20s. It was a drunk driving case and the prosecutor bounced me after asking my age because he felt I would be too sympathetic to the accused. Poor choice on his part, because I have zero sympathy for drunk drivers and spent weekends as DD for my friends.

[Cia]

I've been summoned ten times IIRC. Skipped out on two since the first one I was in college on the other side of the State and the second one I was living out-of-state (DH in the military). Sat through the choosing stage five or six times, you have to call in to see if your pool has to show up so the remainder I didn't even have to show up at the courthouse. Got picked twice to sit on a jury. First time was a bodily injury case between two drunks and the second was a child sexual abuse/rape case involving three minors.

If you can skip child sexual abuse/rape cases do it. Run. Screaming preferably. It stays with you. We started with 22 counts - 11 sexual abuse with 11 alternate rape divided between the three kids. They dropped four by the time we started deliberating so 18 counts. We found him guilty of three counts, lots of reasonable doubt for the other 15. When the guilty/not guilty counts were read there were six deputies in the courtroom. This was after the kids's family was told to shut up or be kicked out during the trial.

I'm eligible for jury duty again. Crud. County jury duty lasts 30 days and they pull names from voter lists and driver's licenses. My brother's county jury duty lasts six months - smaller county.

[lordlundar]

I've been called for it twice. First time I was in the Jury selection room when they told us the last case that a jury was required for the defendant pled guilty just before then and we were all dismissed. The second time I got to the Law Courts Building (our term for the courthouse) and saw a sign saying that the Jury summons was cancelled.

[protege]

I got called for jury duty some 20 years ago. Big waste of my time--they spent the entire day weeding people out. When I finally got picked, I was told to report at the courthouse in the morning. Around 1PM, both sides decided to settle. My reward for the experience? A whopping $20, that didn't even pay for parking and lunch and I was still hourly at the time. Missed out on entire 2 days' pay