Jury Duty

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  • #589743
    ames
    Participant

    ames: Why would you ignore jury summons? As for that matter what right do you have to ignore it?

    #645049
    moish01
    Member

    ames, you gotta be kidding – the only reason i wanna be 18 already is so that i can serve! it’s sounds so cool – i wish i could.

    #645050
    mamashtakah
    Member

    Why do you want to get out of jury duty? Does your system go by “one day or one trial”?

    #645051
    squeak
    Participant

    If someone gets a jury summons, they could always claim to have a 2 year old at home and that they are the primary care giver. This is a valid excuse for an exemption.

    Ignoring it is not a good idea at all. Worst case scenario someone with a badge comes down to your house on the day of your summons to find out where you are.

    #645052
    mepal
    Member

    Thank goodness I’ve never got summoned, but my coworker claims that they have no way of proving that you recieved the letter in the mail. Hence, you can throw the letter out.

    #645053
    squeak
    Participant

    hey moish, forget about serving on a jury at 18. Most 18 year olds have extremely radical views and so most times they will be peremptorally challenged and not even make it to the voir dire. Chances are you won’t even get the chance to show how rational you are.

    #645054
    Jewess
    Member

    Don’t ignore it. You could get in trouble. Why not go? Do you have a valid excuse?

    #645055
    Dr. Pepper
    Participant

    I filled out the questionnaire online for Dr. Pepper, got a confirmation number and e-mail. A few months later she got a letter saying that since she ignored the questionnaire she must either report to court the very next day or risk facing one year in jail plus a $1,000 fine. I called them, told them about the e-mail and they asked me to forward it to them. Never heard from them again.

    As far as jury service is concerned, I never got called but Dr. Pepper did a few times. She just called and said that she’d love to serve on the jury but she’ll need a private room to feed the baby. They always gave her off for a few years. They might have made the system stricter recently though.

    #645056
    squeak
    Participant

    Didn’t you get a questionnaire in the mail before they sent you the summons? Things might be different now than they were when I lived in NY. Then you could send back the quesitonnaire with a request for exemption due to circumstance.

    If not, I guess you would have to go down to get the judge to excuse you. Just be sure to have the child (preferrably screaming) on your shoulder at the time.

    #645057
    mepal
    Member

    ames: you gotta either bring the child or a birth certificate. My mom went thru that recently. I know.

    #645058
    moish01
    Member

    ames, the illegals don’t get summons- they aren’t on the records 😉

    anyway, court sounds really cool. my dad doesn’t get jury duty because he’s a lawyer and my mom got out of it last time because she had a baby at home and she just told them that her husband is a lawyer (i think they don’t want anyone too with it on the jury so once she said that she got off) but i would want to serve. big deal – it’s a few days or weeks. i would love it.

    squeak, i’ll be a pussy cat till i get on. honestly.

    #645059
    GoldieLoxx
    Member

    this happened to a relative of mine. they were summoned to a mafia trial and were called into the judges room one by one. both lawyers were also in the room

    judge: this trial will be long, any reason you can’t serve?

    relative: i have a new job and my boss will not take to kindly to me being gone

    judge: NOT ACCEPTABLE, NOTHING CAN BE DONE TO YOU FOR BEING ON A JURY

    relative: i am a season ticket holder. the trial will cause me to miss a bunch of games

    judge: you are excused

    #645060
    moish01
    Member

    squeak, by the way did you mean peremptorily?

    sorry i’m not really like that but for squeak…

    #645061
    squeak
    Participant

    ouch, moish you got me.

    But just by the way, if you know how to spell it you should know what it means. It means that they will vote you out before you get a chance to speak since you look 18 and are assumed to have radical views. So much for acting like a pussy cat.

    Another thing is that I’m surprised to hear that lawyers are exempted from jury service? Judges are not. Why would lawyers be different? I can understand what happened to your mom – she answered the summons and was excused because they didn’t want her to serve – that’s different from not being called to serve.

    #645062
    squeak
    Participant

    We’ll daven for you.

    #645063
    moish01
    Member

    squeak, i figured that much.

    and maybe i’m wrong (i should ask him) maybe he did get a summons and didn’t serve? i don’t remember anymore. i forgot all the details. i’ll ask him later when he gets home- remind me.

    oh and one more thing – i’ll wear stilts and not shave for three weeks and try really hard to look like i’m 25. fat chance that’ll work though…

    #645064
    squeak
    Participant

    Edit: I just took it back, you ingrate 🙂

    #645065
    moish01
    Member

    oh wow thanks for the reminder 😉

    #645066
    mazal77
    Participant

    Ames just send in a copy of your youngest child, in to the address listed. I do it all the time. If you have school age children or a caregiver, then you will be excused.

    #645067

    ames- what number are you? because not every number has to go every day, call the number on it(i think you can call after 5) and listen and they will tell you if you have to go in the next day or not—-so ames dont worry you may not have to go into hiding just yet

    #645068

    oh and when you are on jury duty- there is a place to go online and that was when i first discovered ywn

    #645069
    moish01
    Member

    haha just saw that. i’m the biggest makir tov in the world – how dare you call me an ingrate?

    i was just thanking you for the unnecessary reminder… imagine? i thank you for something i don’t even need – kal v’chomer when i DO need something! and then you call me a kofuy tov? gee thanks.

    #645070
    squeak
    Participant

    moish, you have me all cracked up 🙂

    ames – what are you doing? Don’t you know they can find you by your IP if you post?

    #645071
    moish01
    Member

    i try really hard 😉

    by the way i just googled it and saw (from very unreliable sources) that lawyers DO get summons and CAN serve but they are usually not picked for obvious reasons. so i guess i was wrong (if you wanna go by yahoo answers…)

    #645072
    moish01
    Member

    ames, don’t you know that the secret service has access to everything on the internet?

    just like the KGB

    #645074
    moish01
    Member

    by the way, squeak- never mind that they actually MAILED her a summons and have it on record so they could just show up at her door at any given moment. and take her in for questioning at the nearest station.

    ames, “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney present during questioning. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you. Do you understand these rights?”

    #645075
    mazal77
    Participant

    Ames,I would just send it anyway. Just make a copy of the summons to have on hand. You have a child so, I don’t think they will come after you. You have an excuse. I don’t think it will be a problem,

    #645076
    moish01
    Member

    well he doesn’t generally engage in CRIMINAL law…

    #645077
    Bais Yaakov maydel
    Participant

    okay so if i just registered myself to vote (finally) does that mean they can now call me up for jury duty??

    #645078
    Bais Yaakov maydel
    Participant

    pro bono is not necessarily criminal law.

    and moish were very impressed that youre fluent in miranda rights…hmm…

    #645079
    YW Moderator-72
    Participant

    ames – I didn’t read the entire thread, however, don’t skip out of Jury duty. not a good idea – read the sumnmons and you will see why.

    #645080
    kapusta
    Participant

    ames

    Member

    bais yacov maydel (what’s a maydel?),

    maydel is girl, yingel is boy. and I’m cabbage 😉

    *kapusta*

    #645081

    bym-they get the list from the dmv

    #645082
    oomis
    Participant

    If someone gets a jury summons, they could always claim to have a 2 year old at home and that they are the primary care giver. This is a valid excuse for an exemption.

    That does not fly anymore. They MIGHT excuse you once, with a birth certificate as proof, but not a second time. The rules are very strict now. I had to come in in the winter in a snowstorm to Queens, and show them both a letter from my Rov explaining about Fridays (that I do not travel more than a half hour’s ride on Erev Shabbos after 1 PM (that’s the truth, btw, having gotten stuck once for three hours in a blizzard, and making it home just to lichtzen), and also from my doctor, with an excuse that is also true, but which I do not want to discuss here. I was excused immediately, and B”H have not been called again, but I did have to show up for that first meeting. I could have handled it over the phone, had I done so in time, but I mislaid the paper and only found it the day before I neededd to start calling the number on the summons.

    It is a felony to deliberately not answer a jury summons. You might get away with,”I never saw the mail,” once. Not twice. They have heard every excuse, and could not care less if you have a baby, a mean boss, a lousy professor, a bad back, etc. Just go, do your civic duty, and hopefully you will not hear from them for a while. My hubby served many times on a regular jury and on the Grand Jury (capital case). He actually served for the two weeks. He enjoyed himself very much. It was a break in routine from his teaching. It is against the law for an employer to penalize his employee for serving. You cannot be fired for that.

    #645083

    A few thoughts and pieces of info about jury duty.

    4) There are some people who will never be seated as jurors, because a competent lawyer will challenge them. The most obvious one is a police officer (current or retired). The prosecution and defense are each looking for jurors who can be manipulated and/or are likely to be sympathetic to their side.

    5) An honest mistake about dates will usually not cause you problems, as long as you contact the court and get it straightened out asap.

    #645084
    kapusta
    Participant

    Tip for jury duty: Postpone until a major holiday (like July 4th, Xmas, etc) they want to get out and start enjoying their time off. They’ll let you go along for the ride.

    ames, good luck!

    *kapusta*

    #645085

    ames-

    It’s been a while in my case, and I don’t know if your summons was for federal or state(?) court, but we had a case of forgetting a summons date several years back. To the best of my recollection, when we called the contact number we were told that an in-person appearance was required, but we didn’t “get into trouble”.

    This was several years ago, and I don’t remember if this was federal court or not, but based on our experience I’d recommend phoning the contact number and hopefully they’d be understanding.

    I wish I could give more definitive info – this is based on the experiences my wife and I had.

    Hatzlocha raba.

    #645086
    LAer
    Member

    If you’re a student or a teacher, you can postpone jury duty until your next major vacation (i.e. summer vacation) – they’ll normally reschedule for July.

    #645088
    Chacham
    Participant

    my mother got jury duty the day before my sisters chasunah. it got pushed off to the day of my brothers bar mitzvah than it got pushed off to some date the next year. my mother said at least i know when the next simchah is!

    #645091
    kapusta
    Participant

    chacham, why wait till next year? simchas are good NOW!

    *kapusta*

    #645092
    Nobody
    Member

    Everyone on the electoral list could get called up for Jury Service from the age of 18 – 60. You cannot ignore a Summons for Jury Duty as it is assumed you received it.

    I have been called up and done one week. It was yeuch. Very ‘prost’ and rough with a physical fight breaking out in the courtroom between two people that grew into the police having to come in…and one jury member whose English was so bad it was beyond belief.

    I did say on day one that I need to leave early because of shabbos. I was asked to provide the time of shabbos and then lo and behold they compared it to the calendar the court held for Jewish Sabbaths and Holy days. I explained to get home minutes before shabbos was not acceptable and they said they would take it into consideration.

    We adjourned on friday lunch time for verdict, resumed monday morning and by monday afternoon, I was done and finished, hopefully for ever.

    #645093
    cherrybim
    Participant

    I have served on many jury panels over the years (including one organized crime federal case which lasted about 2 months) and I couldn’t agree more.

    At times there are only one or two people on a jury panel who have any seichel but you wield a lot of power because verdicts have to be unanimous and if you are strong and don’t cave in to the leftist liberals, then at least you will reach a compromise rather than have the perpetrator a walk home. On the other hand, if you feel that the party should not be found guilty, then of course, you go the other way.

    #645094
    anon for this
    Participant

    cherrybim, did you ever personally experience that situation, where one or two jurors changed the verdict that way? I do agree with what you posted, though I was only called for jury duty once, when I was a single grad student & could easily serve. I was only asked to come for one day, but did not serve & was sent home because the case was settled out of court.

    #645095
    cherrybim
    Participant

    anon for this:

    Yes, two jurors may not change the verdict entirely, although it has happened, but you can force a compromise since the rest of the panel either want to go home or they don’t want a hung jury. At the very least you can compromise or have a no decision on a few counts. This (compromising) is why jury decisions often do not make any sense and are at times conflicting.

    #645096
    anon for this
    Participant

    Thanks cherrybim. I know real life isn’t like Twelve Angry Men but I’ve never been involved in a trial.

    #645097
    cherrybim
    Participant

    It’s interesting; everyone in the jury comes with their individual prejudices and temperaments but sometimes you will have a smart jury and a Twelve Angry Men type of scene and logic will play out with angry shouting, etc.

    #645098
    Jax
    Member

    anon for this: Twelve Angry Men, cool book!

    #645100
    mamashtakah
    Member

    Ames, when I lived in Baltimore City, their policy for jury duty was “one day or one trial.” That means that you go sit in the court room. If you are not picked for a jury, your service is completed at the end of the day (until the city summons you again, usually about 2 years). If you are picked for a jury, your service is completed at the end of the trial, and you can’t be called again for 3 years.

    I was picked twice. The first time I was an alternate juror on a murder trial – one guy shot another in the eye and killed him over $10. The other trial was a civil lawsuit which lasted two weeks. I, by virtue of being picked first for the jury, was the foreman for the jury.

    I would advise against skipping jury duty. The very first time I went I saw a judge signing bench warrants for those who did not show up for jury duty that day. Besides, as long as you’re sitting and waiting, you can pull out a sefer and learn the time away. (Our jury room also had movies, one before lunch and one in the afternoon!)

    #645101

    cherrybim-

    Hi.

    My personal opinion is that we should also serve as part of our civic duty to our country which has treated us so well.

    The U.S. legal system is not perfect, but it works as well as (and in most cases better than) any other.

    #645102
    cherrybim
    Participant

    I can only try: Yes there is tremendous pressure to give in. Many times one or two people (usually teachers or managers who think they know everything and are used to giving orders and having their way) take over. However, once they see that you won’t capitulate and that you are logical, they have no choice but to take you seriously. Like I said, each jury member has tremendous power and should use it wisely.

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