BG tell me: How do I avoid getting picked on a jury?

[Xiona]

Is it really that easy?

while they can force you to show up, no lawyer for either side will agree to having a blatantly biased person sit in their jury. when i was called in for duty i went through the process, sat in the room and with both lawyers preset for selection they told us the type of case and who it involved then as they call you up front they ask you a few questions.

1 of which is, do you think you could be impartial. if you say no they wont keep you and you. you get a note to give your employer or whoever so you get basically a day off.

i thought i was going to have to lie my ass off but it was actually that easy. mine was a suit against an insurance company from an accident. i merely stated that ive been in an accident before and wished i had sued so no matter what i will most likely lean towards the individual

good luck

[Septimus]

"I can tell if someone is guilty *snaps fingers* just like that."

That worked for me once. All the other times I was a full time college student so I was excused from jury duty.

Refried beans the night before. Lots of them. Impress them with your gas.

From what I understand, lawyers tend not to pick the 'smart' and educated people. The people who are just a little smarter than a brick will have preferential treatment to actually get picked for the trial.

These are all good ideas. Here is what you do. Watch many episodes of the show Bones, listen to Temperance. Try to mimic your speech patterns after hers. Try to sound like her as much as possible- think of questions and how she would answer them. For example, if you were asked: "Would you give more weight to the testimony of a police officer", respond with "No, eye witness testimony has been shown in countless studies to be extremely unreliable- whether the witness is a police officer or not is irrelevant".

Also eat a lot of beans the day before.

[0ni0n]

Say something along the line of,"Hey, didn't the guy have a prior record and tatoos/piercings, I bet he's guilty." It will get you off the hoke pretty quickly.

[zoobernut]

You can always just move. If you stop living inside the county where you were summoned they stop bugging you.

[MarkM.]

can felons serve jury duty? that'd be a good way to get out of it I think.

I don't know about everywhere, but in Texas the jury pool comes from voter registration. So I'd be careful saying this, you can more than likely lose your right to vote with this one.

[Darus Grey]

I like Jury Duty and do it every chance I get.

[Xiona]

I like Jury Duty and do it every chance I get.

you like serving the judicable system...

Quilty.. oh im sorry.. Guilty

[Odesseiron]

I had one a few years back. Some guy was walking his dog in the morning, and fell into an open manhole (lol) he was suing the city because there was no notice or barricade that there was an open manhole. Try to be one sided when they ask what you think about the case. I told them that I thought the guy wasn't the smartest, because people should be aware of their surroundings, and shouldn't need a sign to tell them there is an open manhole. I wasn't selected. After tht, there were no more cases and I lucked out.

[ZarakiKujata]

all this bitching about jury duty makes me happy I got called in last spring in massachusetts, they have a unique system relative to other states, apparently the way their court system is structured, 70% of jurors get out in less than a day, 90% in 1-2, and like 99% in 3 days iirc. My only complaint is I was an idiot and thought I'd actually be getting called up and shit so I didnt bring anything to read and was stuck reading the mindless drivel fashion magazines/out of date newspapers they had available.

[Tricen]

If you get picked for Jury duty, you have finals that day. :3

[Devek]

I work downtown and noticed a sheriff on the street talking to people and handing them pieces of paper. I had no idea what was going on, so against my better judgement I walked in that direction to try and overhear what he was talking to people about.

He noticed me and stopped me right away and started asking me questions. He wanted to know my name, my age, if I was a felon, and if I lived in the county... My confusion turned to sadness when he told me that I was assigned emergency jury duty, wrote my name and address down, and handed me the notice. Fuck.

So anyway, I go there the next day and end up in a room with a bunch of other pissed off working people who wished they had walked the other way. Now that we know a sheriff has the power to do that sort of thing, our next question was what the hell would they need an emergency jury for?

Apparently this guy had been committed to some sort of mental ward and he was refusing to take his medication. The state basically was out to prove that the guy was a danger to himself or others and wanted to force him to take the medication.

I didn't want any of that shit. I'm not a believer in the law, so it would have ended up being a moral choice for me and I am not sure how I would feel about it even if they did prove that they were correct in making him take the medicine.

The defense lawyer was asking each of us if we had ever been in any sort of psychiatric institution, so I said yes and I was removed.

You could say it was a lie.. I've never been a patient in any sort of institution, but he simply asked if I had been inside of one and it was 100% true that I had physically been inside of one doing some work.

They gave me a small check to pay for my time and parking, which was cool because my job already pays for my downtown parking and I am on salary.

[Araelus]

These are all good ideas. Here is what you do. Watch many episodes of the show Bones, listen to Temperance. Try to mimic your speech patterns after hers. Try to sound like her as much as possible- think of questions and how she would answer them. For example, if you were asked: "Would you give more weight to the testimony of a police officer", respond with "No, eye witness testimony has been shown in countless studies to be extremely unreliable- whether the witness is a police officer or not is irrelevant".

Also eat a lot of beans the day before.

In my state they recently changed the rules so a jury can ask as many questions they want after the cross-examination is over. Most fun I've had in years, a couple of us pretended to be Phoenix Wright. Ended up uncovering the fact that the plaintiff had colluded with the construction company to sue the lumberyard owner and the guy's lawyer got put in contempt of court. Then again, the defense attorney was basically Perry Mason in the flesh.

Most of the jury that time had the same situation the OP was in economically, not benefiting themselves from having to miss work. By pouring over all the evidence folders and double-checking work journals with emails we cracked the case open and settled it in three days instead of the estimated week it was going to take. So if you do get put in a jury and your local laws allow the jurists to be pseudo-lawyers go for it.

Act smart.

Lawyers are scared shitless of smart juries about 98% of the time.

If you come off as well-educated, well-read, technically competent (especially with computers and the like), and in touch with both common sense and the world around you, you're far less likely to actually be selected to serve on a jury.

Obviously, they misjudged our group in the example above and after the case was over the judge gave us award certificates for being "the most conscientious jury he'd ever seen". Kind of weird now that I think about it.

Moral of the story is that if you have a lot of strong opinions they won't put you on a murder case or most criminal law, but if you get a civil case you might be able to enjoy it.

[Cream Soda]

I work downtown and noticed a sheriff on the street talking to people and handing them pieces of paper. I had no idea what was going on, so against my better judgement I walked in that direction to try and overhear what he was talking to people about.

He noticed me and stopped me right away and started asking me questions.

5th amendment!!!!!

[Aerides]

Civil case...all white guys..no one asked me anything beyond basic questionaire...this could suck

[GImpers]

You say you work in the financial sector? I don't know if you are a stock broker or not, but just tell them with the way the current economy is, you do not want to be away from your clients for an extended period of time.

I would be surprised if you didn't get excused for that.

[Araelus]

It's really hard to get out of a civil case for the usual reasons people get out of jury duty (as have been mentioned and also parodied herein). Best bet where you are now is to find some way to get legally excused or they might be able to defer you for a year (as have also been mentioned and parodied).

On the other hand a civil case might only last five to seven days, instead of some four month grand jury, right?

[ferigor]

I don't know about everywhere, but in Texas the jury pool comes from voter registration. So I'd be careful saying this, you can more than likely lose your right to vote with this one.

Yeah, felons can't vote either. I was mostly joking anyway...

[Devek]

They don't let felons sign petitions here either.

Even time some idiot comes up to me with this or that where they need signatures for whatever good cause or reason, I just lie and say I am a felon. It is the only thing you can say that will make them immediately leave you alone.

That wouldn't work to get out of jury duty though, they could just pull up your name and check lol... It makes me wonder... If lying to get out of jury was a felony, and you say you can't serve on the jury because you are a felon and saying that made you a felon which made it true that you could not serve on the jury.. Would you have really lied?

Kind of like Pinocchio's paradox.

http://imgur.com/BLA6

[0ni0n]

Kind of like Pinocchio's paradox.

Pinocchio's nose will grow if he is being intentionally dishonest (knowing it won't grow yet he still says so), and it won't if he is only mistaken (he doesn't know any better).

[Day]

Never seen that Pinocchio thing before. That's awesome.