Comments on: Why do people hate serving on juries?

By: Amber

Amber — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 04:13:49 +0000

Serving a a jury is a hardship for a lot of people, regardless of their interest level in doing so. Non-salaried workers lose hours and overtime at work that the jury pay may not compensate for well at all. People that work in positions that are not easily replaceable may feel a greater sense of responsibility that they are badly needed where they are; than for jury service where they are interchangeable with someone else. Caretakers of children and the elderly have to make other arrangements and will lose money even if satisfactory arrangements can be found. Students, as has already been mentioned, get no sympathy with respect to missing large stretches of classroom hours and labs, and no one compensates them if they end up having to drop classes and retake them or makes sure their scholarships aren’t jeopardized. The unemployed will lose their unemployment benefits if they are not out looking for work. Then there is the fear of becoming unemployed: in states with loose employment laws, it’s difficult to prove if you are laid off for an illegal reason such as being called away for jury duty. For some people simply arranging the transportation each day is a big deal. I personally know someone who hated jury duty because pain built up in his back when sitting still too long, but it wasn’t considered a severe enough medical condition to get him out of jury duty. (He dealt with it in his day to day life by making sure he walked around at least every 20 minutes or so, ergo, he wasn’t able to show that he had a medical hardship to the satisfaction of the court.) Finally, I know salaried employees that are so stretched thin and overtasked at their job that they have not even taken vacation days in years, for fear of the disaster that would pile up on their desks.

By: MF

MF — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 00:24:45 +0000

@LisaMarie – good thing I didn’t get arrested for jury duty avoidance! Back in about 1980 I was away at college in Pittsburgh and got a notice for grand jury duty service in Cleveland (which in itself was about an hour from my home). I merely wrote a letter back to the court, telling them I was away at college and unavailable to serve. I didn’t *ask*, I *told* them I wasn’t serving. Fortunately, at least back then they didn’t pursue things further. I never heard another word.

By: Ron Miler

Ron Miler — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 14:18:58 +0000

Increasingly live in Mike Judge’s Idiocracy? When was this? People used to race to the courthouse steps to serve on juries? These good ole days never were.

Actually, the one thing I find amazing is how seriously people who do serve on juries take it. I’ve had juries that stay until late until the night and carry over cases for days trying to get it right. The only real dog they have in fight is their desire to do the right thing.

I’m not taking away from the tales of woe above. They happen too. But I think there is not enough attention given to the really good stories that happen quietly every day.

By: Yeaah

Yeaah — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 11:16:36 +0000

“even though it’s educational, a potentially valuable civic contribution, a break from routine, a chance to get reading done, and so forth.”

With the exception of the “valuable civic contribution”, I can get all of these better on my own terms. I can take vacancies, stay home, break the routine and read. Or whatever.

It will not be payed, but jury pay is a joke too. It will be at a time I choose, e.g. less problems for both me and my employer. It will be at a place I will choose, e.g. someplace comfortable.

By: Anonymous Attorney

Anonymous Attorney — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 18:37:23 +0000

“even though it’s educational, a potentially valuable civic contribution, a break from routine, a chance to get reading done, and so forth.”

Problem here is that the average modern American is not interested in education, civic contributions, breaks from routine or reading. We increasingly live in Mike Judge’s Idiocracy.

I can share some amusing tales from talking to jurors in New York City. I lost a civil case once on grounds that the plaintiff “seemed like a nice lady who needed money”, according the the forewoman of the jury. And I won a case becaue the plaintiff “seemed like a bitch” according to that forewoman (I had a lot of all-female juries, for some reason.) Principles of negligence and causation didn’t seem to come into it for these juries, probably because those concepts are too advanced for people who enjoy watching the Kardashians on TV or who live off welfare.

Another would-be juror announced that she didn’t like the way we did it in Queens, and that “in my country, we do this better.” Of course, it would have been terribly insensitive to suggest that she go back to “her country”, but you get the point. Asian jurors would occasionally profess no English, even to the point of not professing anything but simply remaining mute, refusing to fill out the form, etc. Of course, this isn’t good either way: they’re either faking, or they’re telling the truth and we live in a country where the much-vaunted value of “diversity” doesn’t exactly help propel the civic engines.

By: Jim Collins

Jim Collins — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 15:33:40 +0000

Ron,
I never spoke to a judge, nor was I trying to duck serving. I was merely asking for a little leeway on the timing. I asked the Clerk if there was anyway to change the dates that I would be in the pool. I wouldn’t have minded so much if I had been called in to serve, but, to just be on standby and not get called, kind of ticked me off.

By: Ron Miler

Ron Miler — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 14:21:38 +0000

There were complicated issues of fact when this country was founded and juries were 1/10 as smart back then as people are now because education is so much greater for the masses. Still, our Founding Fathers never considered the notion of expert juries. Personally, I don’t defer to our founders on ever issue we face (George, Tom, what do you think we should do about affirmative action?) But it is interesting that the same people that treat original Constitutional intent as the word are often the same ones complaining about juries not being smart enough to figure things out.

Jim, I have to say I’m inclined to agree with the court that the National Dart Championship is not particularly compelling in light of the number of excuses judges hear in voir dire.

Paul is right that there are groups that naturally get put on or left off juries that are advantageous to one side or the other. But it cuts both ways. For example, they also limit in some jurisdictions jury pools to voters with driver’s licenses. There are a lot of people who should have a voice that don’t have a driver’s license. Those voices remaining silent are not a win for plaintiffs’ lawyers.

By: adam zur

adam zur — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 10:45:58 +0000

Schopenhauer also thinks that juries are only good for English mentality and not good for Germans. He might have a point. But I think that this issue is not possible to solve on its own without looking into the larger issue of the type of John Locke government that the USA constitution was built on and the general attack on enlightenment principles from the left stating from Rousseau. I think a good approach to this problem would go far in understanding the problem in the American legal system.
personally i would not know how to approach this but i do think that the America system really was meant to work for North Atlantic European type of people.

By: David Smith

David Smith — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 03:21:42 +0000

I can tell you exactly why people hate serving on juries – and it has nothing to do w hating lawyers or the crappy treatment.

It is 100% the “closely reasoned” cesspool the legal profession has made of what many people think is the human race’s highest achievement.

By: Jim Collins

Jim Collins — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 19:47:13 +0000

How about sitting in a room for 9 hours a day for 4 days, while losing pay and when you are called in, being dismissed, because you are a college graduate? Then it takes 6 weeks to get your check from the County and it doesn’t cover what you had to pay for parking.

I was required to be availible for Federal Jury duty for two weeks. It didn’t matter that the National Dart Championship matches, that I spent 2 years working on qualifying for were in Chicago during that period. I asked them to switch my times, I volunteered to be availible for four weeks, but, I was told no. So I stayed home and did what I was supposed to do. They never called me in. Three months later I broke my shoulder in an accident and no more playing darts.

These days, I think that they should draw from the unemployment rolls. No pay would be required, just let them keep drawing their benefits.