Booted off my first jury panel

[pegkerr]

It was interesting. I spent the morning in the basement of the court building. I had brought reading material but ended up reading the magazines they have scattered around.

Around 2:00 p.m., I was called up for voir dire for a civil medical malpractice case. After about an hour of questioning the potential jurors, they struck four (peremptory challenge). I was one of the four stricken. One of my attorneys had been on a medical malpractice case, suing the defendant, within the past six months. That, I expect, was the reason why.

So, I will not be hearing that case. I went back to the basement and read magazines ("Read JLo's secrets for Maintaining Fabulous Thighs!") until it was time to go home.

Comments

[pinguthegreek.livejournal.com]

I know I'm a lurker, but I'm curious, do you have to turn up for duty every day even if you get stricken ?

[sraun]

Yes, you do. Or at least, you did 3-5 years ago. Hennepin County jury duty is two weeks - the first week you have to check in every morning and wait, the second week you have to be available to be called in and get there in some defined period of time. If you can't be called and arrive in the defined timely fashion, you have to show up the second week and wait until they release you.

IIRC, you're theoretically there 8:30-4:00 or 5:00, but it's common to be released for the day at 2:00 or 3:00, and for the Thursday afternoon release to include 'you don't have to come back in on Friday'.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

I do for the first week, I believe. There is a possibly I will simply have to call a phone number twice a day during the second week, to see if I'm needed. I won't know on that until the end of the week.

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

Voir dire is fascinating. The case I was called in on was a civil suit after a car accident. Some of the challenges were obvious, some I could ferret out a guess...some I was really baffled by and really wanted to find out the reasoning behind! But courtroom psychology is one of those subjects where the more I find out, the more terrified I am of our justice system, so maybe it's better that I don't know.

[joelrosenberg.livejournal.com]

Okay; I'll admit ignorance: why would an attorney use up a preemptory challenge when that sounds so much like cause?

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

I wondered the same thing.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

None of us were stricken for cause; all were peremptory challenge. It was a medical malpractice case. One of the others stricken was a pre-med student, one was also employed by the U of MN (the defendant was the U of MN hospital system), and I forget who the fourth potential juror was.

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

Ya ask me, I think ya got tossed 'cuz you know what a "voir dire" is....

[amethistdolphin.livejournal.com]

How does this work? The law systme in Brazil is different so all my knowledge is from John Grisham Novels...

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

The names of potential jurors are gathered from voting records and driving license lists. Names are chosen randomly from those lists. Years may pass and you never get called (this is the first time I've been called). The court sends you a summons--that's a legal document telling you that you are obligated to show up at a certain date and time. You have the right to ask to reschedule if there is some reason you cannot appear when summoned. I did that, when I was first summoned in April, because I was out of the state the first day I was supposed to appear. The court let me reschedule to this week in May. You show up, and they take your name down, and you wait in a large room with several hundred other people who have also been called. Then, as cases are scheduled for trial, the judge for each case requests that a group of potential jurors come up to their court room. They choose those people by randomly shuffling the names in the larger potential jury pool.

You go into the courtroom, the judge introduces himself and members of the courtroom staff, and the attorneys for the plaintiff and the defendant. The attornys have the chance to ask you questions--that is "voir dire." After they have asked their questions, which are used both to lay the groundwork for their cases and to try to determine whether any of the potential jurors would not be able to deliberate fairly, they have the opportunity to ask the judge to remove a small subset of the potential jurors from the pool. Today, I was one of those removed, after the questioning was done. Then the remaining jurors are sworn in, and the trial begins.

I will report to the jury pool tomorrow, and for the rest of the week. I may have to report next week, too. It is entirely likely that I will be picked for another jury and will have to sit through a trial this week. Once you have served on a jury, you are not called to serve again for four years.

It is an essential part of our judicial system, the fact that cases are decided, as the saying goes, "by a jury of one's peers." That means that when people go to court, the cases are decided by citizen jurors, people just like them. It's a great system, really, and a bedrock of our democracy. I'm actually glad to have the chance to serve.

[amethistdolphin.livejournal.com]

Thank you!!!!
That is the most interesting part of the US judicil system. I find it that since it is based on precedents it has the tendency of being a lot more fair than the one based on written laws. I think nothing is only black and white and a jury based system helps with those shades of grey.

One other question (if you dont mind)... what happens with your job?

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

My employer is paying me my regular pay while I am out on jury duty. The policy varies from employer to employer (and how big the company is)--smaller companies may only pay a portion of the pay, or none at all, I suppose, if they are really small. I think mine feels that they should pay, because they are, after all, a legal firm of attorneys and feel they should support the jury-based judicial system.

[etakyma.livejournal.com]

Oh man, two weeks? I am really glad that Massachusetts has the "one day, one trial" system in place. You go for a day and if you don't get chosen you are done for the next three years, when your name goes back in the lottery. I was chosen for a jury a few years ago (probably about ten years now) and it took two days. I haven't been called since.

I can't imagine having to fight my way down to the courthouse for a whole week of sitting around.