I'm back way earlier from my first day of jury service than I thought I would be and here's the lowdown on what's going down:
I'm serving on a civil jury panel pool for the next two months. What that means is I can be called to serve on any civil jury trial in the next two months but the odds are I won't even be called to serve because most civil trials in my area are settled out of court or the attorneys decide that they will take their chances with a judge only trial. According the judge who spoke to us this morning, there is an average of two civil trials that require a jury impanel during each two month term.
So what happens now is I have to call in after 5 PM most every weekday to see if I have to come in the next day or not, and due to the holiday at the end of the week they did not even schedule any cases this week so the next time I call in is next Tuesday. If there is a case where they intend to use a jury then they want about 40 0r 50 potential jurors to come in. They need that many to come in because many of those who do come in will get winnowed out due to attorney objections.
I'm still excited about serving and I hope to get to be on a jury but like I said before, the odds are against me this time around. Maybe if I get recalled in two years, if you serve on a jury pool then you don't have to serve for another two years, I'll get called to serve on a criminal jury pool and I'll get to be on a jury.
Ah well, whatever may come, I'm proud to do my civic duty without whining.
7 comments:
Wow, that's a long time to be "on call." Good luck, Monkey!
I have been on JD many times. Mostly I went once and that was it.
I was on two civil cases over the years, that both got settled. One before the trial started and the other after our lunch break on day one!
Then I got selected for Federal Court , which lasted one week.
It was fascinating a
And I am glad that I did it but did not get stuck for weeks. But I did get to see justice done!
Have fun with your call ins.
How odd. I thought I had Jury Duty this week, turns out it's actually next week, but still...
Also, I know two other bloggers that got JD either this week or next.
2 months? holy heck thats a long times to be on call for jury duty. i just finished my week of on calledness on friday the 13th! i am now free from service for at least 1 year.
I was called a few years ago, and the same thing happened to me. I wanted to serve. I was released the first day I reported. What a rook.
You know what Monkey-I have never ever been called for jury duty! I have actually wanted to be called, but, nothing so far. A couple of my friends have been called numerous times-one 3 times in about 4 years!
Can you talk to that judge about the asshole running the country while you're there?!
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