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The dislike for Jury service.
2011-08-24 17:29:36
edited 2011-08-24 17:29:36 in General
I am Dr. Ned who is totally not Dr. Zed in disguise.
It seems to be quite common when Jury service is brought up in discussion online that quite a few people always mention wanting to avoid it at all costs.
I really don't understand why, I've been on jury service and I found it fascinating seeing how the courts worked and being a part of it.
I got the time I had to take off work paid for so all in all it seemed like a win-win situation.
Comments
I really hope it looked like this:
This is of interest to the Pedophile General. But on a more serious note, is there anything in British government documents pertaining to a parallel of the 4th Amendment; that is, a restriction on searches and seizures without a warrant?
And my dad's boss is a douche who refuses to compensate him.
I was called for jury duty and dismissed because I simply wasn't chosen for the jury. I would have been dismissed anyway because I was going back to school in a month.
As for the dislike of jury duty. People hate being bothered by the government. People also hate their everyday life to be interrupted. People also don't like other people. There are a lot of reasons people dislike jury duty.
US wise, you shouldn't be fired, but that's been known to happen from time to time wish ironically lead to the court room. As for compensation, they don't go to the trouble of requiring employers to fill out forms or anything. The state just compensates your time with however much they feel like it seems. When I was up for jury selection, this one old guy tried and tried to reason his way out of serving in the jury but he couldn't get out of it at all. Plus, when we were actually in the court house. We were kept waiting for hours before anything happened. A serious pain in the ass.
1. I'm much, much more civic-minded than most people. (Note my involvement in politics and interest in policy.)
2. My daily life currently is rather boring.
3. I haven't ever done jury duty before.
^^ Thanks for the advice; I'll be sure to bring my own book if I ever get called for jury duty.
Here in Connecticut, you get paid for jury duty some measly amount (like $50 a day) if your service goes over five days.
The "avoid jury duty at all costs" thinking is undoubtedly related to most people's wish not to have their usual daily routine messed about with. It's not such a problem when you're fairly young or retired because you have more time, but once you start getting jobs, kids and so on, anything that takes you away from that is a real hassle.
Also, a very high proportion of people who end up in front of a jury are guilty as hell and only playing the system for a (slim) chance of an acquittal. I'd be perfectly happy to leave all criminal cases to judges and save everyone's time. Actually, most are already tried by magistrates, not juries, anyway.
^My own fear is that I'll either screw up and ruin someone's life unfairly, let someone get away with murder, etc. Or end up having to convict / acquit based on a law or technicality I don't agree with. Or the trial will result in a slap on the wrist for someone who is truly dangerous or a very long sentance for someone who deserves a slap on the wrist.
As for the odd law or technicality you don't agree with, you might be able to get out of jury duty based on that, or something. Although in those cases they might not be constitutional either.
Yeah, if you don't think the law is just you probably will not be selected for that particular case.
If a remember correctly they use that kind of narrowing down in death penalty cases, using so-called "death-qualified jurors" in order to ensure that no one is going to absolutely refuse to impose capital punishment no matter what. I think you could make a pretty decent argument that doing something like that makes juries less fair, or at least less representative of the population as whole. Then again, from what I hear, jury picking is a weird process anyway and choosing jurors who will never give the death penalty may skew things too.
FrodoGoofballCoTV,
My own fear is that I'll either screw up and ruin someone's life unfairly, let someone get away with murder, etc. Or end up having to convict / acquit based on a law or technicality I don't agree with. Or the trial will result in a slap on the wrist for someone who is truly dangerous or a very long sentance for someone who deserves a slap on the wrist.
Yep, I pretty much share those fears. Maybe I take that kind of thing too seriously, but I think it can be pretty scary being an arbiter of someone's fate like that.
The_Edge,
As for the dislike of jury duty. People hate being bothered by the government. People also hate their everyday life to be interrupted. People also don't like other people. There are a lot of reasons people dislike jury duty.
I think if you add people not wanting to wait a while during the selection process you pretty much have described all of the main reasons why people dislike jury service.
What annoys me about jury duty isn't missing a whole day of work and getting compensated approximately one hour's wage, or even the tedium of sitting through all that stuff. I'm willing to do that for the sake of making our legal system work as well as possible.
What gets to me is how the best way to get out of jury duty is to show up and actually present yourself as an intelligent person who can weigh facts and evidence. Like 90% of the time you'll get challenged off the jury by the attorney with the weakest case.