Oh, no! Jury Duty!

Just another Mass person chiming in. I grew up in Freetown which is between New Bedford, Taunton, and Fall River. I live in Maine now!

Hmmmm, Freetown, isn't that next to Lakeville???

Yea!  The doctor wrote me the note today and I'm off the hook--for the time being anyway.  With my luck (as I been called ten times in the last ten years), they will probably wait a few months and try me again.

I agree with Old Hat that if you're called too often, something is amiss.

That said, if your health allows (and only if your health allows), jury service can be quite rewarding and interesting. And without jurors, the judicial system would be quite strapped to provide the justice we all expect under the laws of our land.

I admit that when I got called for jury duty, I got out of it for a time because I was a college student. When spring semester ended, I had no further excuse and I had to serve. I found it fascinating! As a result, I started court reporting training that fall and have been a court stenographer for very nearly 30 years.

Mitz

FitzyK23 said...
Moo - did you think you were pre-emt challenged based on your UC?

I think I included that on my questionnaire, along with the fact that my asthma is bothered by people wearing fragrance.

Many fragrances cause me to phlegm up and have trouble talking and that was pretty apparent when I answered some of the questions the prosecutor asked. Or it may have been some of my responses related to the drunk driving questions. Hard to tell!

I was just really happy to be dismissed. I looked up some news articles when I got home last night. It was a double fatality drunk driving-related case

Post Edited (Moo) : 4/1/2008 6:50:41 PM (GMT-6)

I actually never had to serve.  In California, it's different I remember than when I lived in New Jersey where you simply just have to go in.  Here, I got my summons notice every year for the past 10 years but my group number was never called and I never had to go in.  You check via computer or phone if you have to go in.  But the stress of not knowing until the last minute makes it awful, since you may not be called for the morning session, but still might be still be called for the afternoon session and you only have so much time to get there--which is anywhere of one of 4 places--one is very near but the rest are far.  My husband also has gotten his summons more than 10 times in the last ten years, actually 12 because they had him down twice--once with his middle initial and once without.  He finally got it straightened out but what a hassle!  He did have to server though, three times.  Once was on 9/11 disaster and they sent everyone home.

I agree, MitzMN, that one should serve if/when in remission. Apart from one's civic duty, some of the cases can be very interesting. I have served about six times in civil court, plus once in criminal court-- where I was dismissed during the voir-dire because all victims of past crime were excused by the defendant's attorney. (I had been mugged in 1980.) The cases in civil court usually settle without jury deliberation, which can be frustrating if one has been following testimony for several days! A case I was happy to be excused from involved a 37 yr-old housewife suing a plastic surgeon because her "tummy tuck" resulted in an off-center navel!!!! It was hard to seat a jury for that case; the lawyers went thru a pool of 300 people without filling their panel & had to resume the voir-dire in the next juror call-up a week after our session. / Old Hat

Great that you've enjoyed it, Mitz. I'm always impressed by the court reporters' composure-- even on occasions when the presiding judge had lost patience with the proceedings & yelled at one or another of the lawyers, I noticed how they managed to ignore the theatrics: way cool! / Old Hat