Don't Judge Me!!!!

[Yarnil]

Judges, like Jurors, are people. They have emotions. They also can fail to be impartial. In addition, appointed judges can often have political agendas to boot. For all it's faults, putting citizens in judgment has the effect of acting as a check on the power of judges. There are a great many countries with judge-run tribunals where that is indeed a problem. (i.e. China)

I'm not saying it's currently a problem in the Dutch courts, nor do I think it would necessarily be a problem in the U.S., just that it can act as a valuable safeguard.

SirWired

True, but in the dutch system the only one forced into duty is the offender. If I would be forced into jury duty, I would want to get out asap, or lose my job....and free time..... and my soul if one party annoys me too much.

[NateTheChops]

And she was right, you certainly aren't going to be judging her, that now falls upon his/her honor and 12 of her peers

That's a scary prospect right there. Twelve other people in the world who are like her...

[Teskeria]

In my entire life so far (which is quite a long time) I have been picked once. There were two pending murder trials, so they thought we would be on juries, but both pled out. So that was it. one day only.

My MIL on the other hand, got jury duty every time she was eligible AND Grand Jury duty as well. She just seemed to have bad luck that way

[emax4]

If she didn't want to be judged, didn't she have the option to admit fault by paying her fine right then and there? That's how it works here in PA, at least. I don't know how it's done in Texas.

[Caractacus_Potts]

Bet she doesn't show up for court and has a bench warrant issued on her ass.

I can't tell you how many of the inmates I'd screen at the county jail were there for "Failure to Appear", usually on traffic or other misdemeanor charges.

Years ago I went to a party after I got off work. When I arrived a bunch of people wanted to do a beer run to the local liquor store and since I was the only one sober I volunteered. The boyfriend of the girl throwing the party (her parents were away) collected the money and a list.

When we got to the liquor store I convinced BF to let me go in and buy since they might refuse to sell to someone who is drunk. When I came out there were two police officers talking to BF.

I guess this was BF's fourth beer run of the night to the same store and the police had become curious about where all this alcohol was going. They check out ID's and it turns out not only does BF have an outstanding arrest warrant for failure to appear, the hearing he failed to appear for was for a previous failure to appear! The police told me that because of this he would be held without bail and brought to court Monday morning (this was Friday night).

You can imagine how well it went over when I went back to the party and told the host that her boyfriend had been arrested and the earliest he might get out of jail was next Monday!

[Dave1982]

Folks, there have been several posts in this thread that are veering sharply into Fratching territory. The finer points of jury trials and other court systems belong there, not here on CS.

[Mikkel]

I hope the woman try that "Dont judge me!" line on the judge. I can see that work well .

[Betweenshades]

I had to go to traffic court a few years back. The guy ahead of me (who was there for driving under a suspended license, suspended tags, no insurance and had been pulled over for speeding) asked for an extension of his trial date because "he didn't think it was that important at the time."

Gotta love people

[blas]

I figured the trial that I was excused from jury duty of didn't last long, either.

I didn't make it any further than the questioning, but we did get to see the witnesses. The defendant had none, just him and his smirking lawyer. The ADA had the arresting officer, a "victim" of the defendant, and a employee in the toxicology department of the local hospital. I figured he was probably roasted within minutes, if not a few hours.

But then again, I guess people will persist if they really truly think they can get away with something, right?

[vloglady]

Can we re-open this thread in three months? I wanna know what happened.

[Jay 2K Winger]

I guess I was fortunate in my three court appearances (my car accident, and twice for expired tags) that I didn't see any of these people. Or their kinfolk that didn't end up getting the jury trial.

I -did- see the "genius" who tried to argue his ticket for running a red light by first claiming that he was from Texas, "where we have a more laid-back approach to life." (This got a laugh out of everyone, including the judge.) Then he tried arguing along the lines of the average human response time, and how he didn't have enough time to react to the light going yellow/red or whatever, and the judge just cut him off and said the man's case would be heard later.

[Tama]

That would be nice, because I'd like to know that this entitlement idiocy had a result that involved a harsh dose of reality.

[Marmalady]

Why not? It works on spineless managers.

From what I see on here, yes that's true.... I'm just glad that where I work, the managers and their deputies all have spines and won't cave into an SC just to keep them happy at all costs (or just to get rid of them).

[chainedbarista]

lady panacea sayeth: Bet she doesn't show up for court and has a bench warrant issued on her ass.

that would be funny; i wish judge judy was sitting on this genius' case.

if i get caught, i suck it up and pay the fine. no muss, no fuss and most importantly, no freaking drama.

[Raveni]

Interestingly, in Florida, if you elect for a trial and lose, they add court costs... Ouch.

I wonder what this lady said to the police officer? He probably just gave her the tickets and drove off...