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Jury Duty :mad:


SpaceGhost

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Well my wife is 34 weeks pregnant, 36 is full term and 40 weeks is her due date. I get a Jury Duty notice in the mail last week. For beginning of Febuary. (her 36th week) I Fax it in asking to be excused because my wife could have our first child at any time in Febuary. I got a letter back Fri saying DENIED and they just posponed my Duty to April 02. I don't want to do this at all I think. It's 2 weeks of going down to the court house to affect someone elses life. Are there any perks to doing this? Do I have to use vacation time at work to get paid (I work for the state)? I am thinking of going down on the first day and just making this statement; "I think everyone is guilty and will rule that way." then maybe they will excuse me from duty? Any body else go through Jury Duty? Can you explain what happens, and give any advise?
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The bad news: There are no real perks to it other than saying "I did my civic duty." The money they give you for your time sucks, and though it can be interesting if you get a "good" case, it's not guaranteed.

 

The good news: Lawyers *hate* putting anybody on a jury that they don't think they can get on their side. Therefore, if you present yourself as a distracted, arrogant, bigoted, prejudiced ass (basically whatever the pure opposite of what the defense is looking for), odds are they'll dump you from the pool faster than Linn can give us nasty vids.

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if it were any other time in my life I would say ok I'll go. But This will be in the first 2 months of my child being born! WTF? I have more responsibility to my infant daughter than to some drunk driver who is trying to get off. Thanks for the response. Anyone else?
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I know alot of people who have been selected from the random pick to be on a jury, but very few who have actually be kept on by the lawyers. The above post was right if you present yourself and not the person they are looking for then you get off free. You can always pull the religon or race card on them:-)

 

Evan

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My friend got a jury duty notice and he sent a letter back saying he's racist and prejudice against most other cultures and races and they dismissed him.

 

wow, that's nice of them.

 

Ben I dont know about the state but im fairly sure most private corporation's have to pay you your same pay rate while your on jury duty. I know where I work we have a few different 'codes' to use on out time card, one is for jury duty. For us it's basically like calling in sick but there's no limit in how long you are on jury duty.

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I did it once and it was BORING.I ended up getting on a case where a couple was sueing a Trucking Co. over an accident.I got excused form one case against a chid abuser when I said I have 3 kids and my Sister-In-Law is a nurse at Childrens Hospital.My boss now says he has a way to get out of it and He's never had an employee go.If you really want to get out of it let me know and I'll call him out on his trick.
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wow, that's nice of them.

 

Ben I dont know about the state but im fairly sure most private corporation's have to pay you your same pay rate while your on jury duty. I know where I work we have a few different 'codes' to use on out time card, one is for jury duty. For us it's basically like calling in sick but there's no limit in how long you are on jury duty.

 

Negative. They can't fire you, but they don't have to pay you.

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Jury duty is a breeze. I spent the first week playing on my laptop(they have internet avail for you) then spent my second week on a domestic violence case. Many employers make you sign over the jury duty check to them and they pay you normally, my employer paid me for my reg 40 hours and let me keep the jury duty money, which is basically to compensate you for your parking fees. The good part is if you aren't picked for a jury, usually you don't have to be there until 10 and you are excused at 3 and they let you go early usually on friday...and they report to your employer that you served 40 hours when you actually only spend 20-25 hours there for the week. Jury duty is a good deal unles syou are a private busness owner, but then they will excuse you to run your business. The best way to get out of jury duty...don't vote...they pull the names from voter registration records, although they told me they are trying to change that to the way Alaska does it..by drivers license.
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I served around Thanksgiving. They apparently have become far more strict in giving out excuses, but as you know they will schedule it later (3 or 6 mos is the max, I don't recall which). It's more boring than anything else, just bring a laptop. They let people go home as early as possible, so you will probably only be there from 9 to 3 or so most days (if you do nothing but sit in the pool). If you are seated on a jury, the schedule will depend on the judge's, but we typically were in around 9 or 10 and out before 5 (one day we were there for a whopping hour). They have overlapping pools of jurors (new pool every week), so don't worry too much about getting seated on something at the last minute. You will probably be excused a day or two early because of the overlap. And, don't expect to keep the $20/day... most employers will pay you regular wages, but require you to sign the jury check over to them. I actually kinda liked it, since I essentially got a week and a half of paid vacation, and I got to sit on a murder trial.

 

The kicker: they only know if you were there on a particular day or not, so if you only have to show up for 30 min, your boss won't know you spent the rest of the day watching porn on your cell phone at the bar.

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Are there any perks to doing this?

 

only if you consider justice a perk...

 

I am thinking of going down on the first day and just making this statement; "I think everyone is guilty and will rule that way." then maybe they will excuse me from duty?

 

if you say these things, you wont be picked to be on a trial. however they just put you back into the pool and your number can be drawn again for a different trial. hell you may go down there every day and not get called... basically if you do this, you're still going to have to show up and sit around all day.

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sorry about your luck, you'll get out of it if you want to.

 

As a physician, I never have to do jury duty: /dance

 

btw, 'term' is not until 38 weeks, not 36. Grats on the baby. I just delivered our first one Saturday.

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I think I am just going to show up the first day and be the biggest asshole I can be. I sent in a perfectly good excuse to be excused and they basicall called me a liar in the letter and rescheduled it. So since the state wants to disreguard my honesty in not wanting to do this, I will go and show them that THEY don't want me to do this.
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