Talk Elections

God damn it.

Should I bother with it?  They sent the summons to my old address where we moved from about two months ago.  I could always plead ignorance and say I never got it, if they ever even follow up with these things.

I was warned about becoming a registered voter!  My wife and friends had the right idea.  :(

If Nevada's system is anything like ours, lawyers can object to you being selected based on no grounds whatsoever. So if you get jury duty, what I did was show up kinda scruffy and voila!

Although, uh, my name wasn't selected anyway, so I just stood around in a courtroom for three days before going home.

A few options:

1-Show up drunk to your screening interview.
2-Think from the mindset of those die-hard Paulites you saw at the convention, not exactly the people any prosecutor wants on a jury.
3-Pretend you are Rochambeau at your screening interview.

That is the case in the US, but I think they are given a limited number of "no explanation disqualifications".

I got summoned once, but was saved by being a technically out of state college student. I learned that they usually disqualify college students during the school year anyway, because it's difficult to work around a class schedule.

Unless it's a Federal or felony case, jury duty usually isn't a burden.

Why's everyone hate on jury duty?

Say Jury nullification at some point.

I'd think that #1 could get you arrested/fined for either contempt or thrown in a drunk tank w/a public intoxication ticket.

Bring your smartphone and some books/magazines to read. At least in Nassau County you just sit in an auditorium and wait, you only have a 50/50 chance of even being selected to be interviewed.

This is what you get for voting.

No kidding.  I had it in the back of my mind to remember to update my voter registration for my new address, but now I don't think I'll bother.  Between this latest development and my getting email spammed by the Romney campaign (and now some random Paultard newsletters as well), the cost of participating in the GOP caucuses is starting to show itself.

Anyway, thanks for the suggestions, guys.  Except the ones that involve actually showing up and participating.  I'd prefer not to have to take a day off work and accept only $40 as compensation.

I actually enjoyed the case I was on.

I'll never forget the fun-filled time I had at jury duty! I sat in a big room with others, filled out some paper work, read some stuff, did some more sitting, got a lunch break/went to eat at one of my favorite places, came back and sat some more then got dismissed around 2:30 while collecting my $9 pay! Then I went to buy a new necktie (which remains as one of my favorites). It was a blast!

The only bad news: I found out a few weeks later that one of my best friends was supposed to have jury duty the same day but got out of it because he was a "full time student."  :(

I know someone who was summoned, but he didn't have to do it because he said that he was a Christian. Seriously.

I'm one of those weird people who'd actually *want* to be selected...

I'd only want it if it was some nonsense victimless crime so I could practice nullification, but I'm sure that I would never get selected for such a jury anyway.

Wow, you're really a creep. :P

As soon as the defendent enters the courtoom, stand up and yell  Guilty! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqOBBhRpnxE) as soon as he or she enters.

If it isn't a felony case, it's probably just traffic court or a suspended license case. I had to go a few years ago, and it basically lasted an hour and all we did was decide the guy was guilty and leave. Of course, it's easy to get out of. Most people would just say they were going out of town and couldn't make it.

I get summoned regularly...it's no big whup.  I never get picked :)

I have sat in a jury pool for a day three times. One of the three times I was called, along with about 100 other folks, because it was a three month trial or something. You had the ability to opt out, if you hung around until after lunch. If you didn't opt out, you could leave right away, and would be called later. I stayed until after lunch. If I ever got selected, one side or the other would probably bounce me because of my profession. Lawyers are worried that if a lawyer is on the jury, there is a potential that it will effectively become a jury of one rather than nine. :P

One of my professors for my law classes, who of course was a licensed attorney herself said that it's mandatory that attorneys be barred from juries and she's been called but ruled ineligible on those grounds. In fact I think I've heard that anyone employed by a law firm is barred from jury duty due to a possible conflict of interest, though in that case non-attorneys become eligible again if they leave their job but anyone who was an attorney is barred for life. Maybe just the law in Minnesota.

I'm banned from jury duty... I've had legal training.

No such ban exists in CA.

So wondering, if during a pre-screening interview I went on some rant along the lines of "I think the justice system is bullsh**t, they won't even let me smoke weed!", would that disqualify me from any jury, or just drug cases?

Nor here.  My cousin is one of the top labor lawyers in the area and he always gets picked, ha ha, poor bastard :P

Also do they do background checks on any prospects? Like let's say in California they find out someone was an active organizer for the Yes on Prop 19 campaign. I think that fact would probably eliminate them from any drug cases.

Background checks?  Seriously?   They can't f[inks]ing people to show up....get serious, brtd.  The courts don't have enough money to cover your parking for the day. ::)

You can do better than that. One of my law partners during voir dire states that he as a matter of conscience in PI cases, will not award pain and suffering damages. That does the trick for those kind of cases. You might also say as a grand unified disqualifying that you believe in jury nullification, and will not convict if the penalties involved shock the conscience (as they typically do in drug cases for example, but it goes beyond that). This old right winger actually subscribes to the jury nullification concept myself. Shocking isn't it?  :)

Well there aren't many people who don't believe in jury nullification in the sense they'd never consider it (and honestly anyone who wouldn't is probably damn near a sociopath.) Although I suppose jury nullification as a legal concept goes beyond something like "I'm not going to convict anyone for weed." I don't even know if I'd say I believe in the philosophical principles behind jury nullification, but I'd never convict someone of something that I don't have a problem with and oppose the illegality of. Quite frankly I view it as a bit of a moral issue too, it'd bug my conscience as much as something like turning in my neighbors to the Stasi in the GDR.

I don't believe it's banned here in Michigan, but they ask if you or anyone related to you is a lawyer during the jury selection process, and I'm guessing the judge and/or lawyers would toss you off for that reason.

Mention jury nullification.  They'll inks bricks and you'll be off scott-free.

I despise jury duty, but I would also love love love to be on a jury in a drug case, or on the sentencing phase of a first-degree murder case.  So I can save some poor sap's life.

So what did you decide to do, Joe?