Jury Duty!

[staceb1990]

In theory, jury duty kind of sounded like fun. But now that I actually have to do it, I'm kind of nervous. I'm really surprised they picked me; I'm 18, unregistered to vote, and still in high school. They probably won't actually have me do anything in the end, but I'm just curious. Has anybody ever been on jury duty?

 

[User35]

I have never had to do jury duty because Im a Peace Officer in the state of California. Theres a box to check only the jury duty summons. Annnnywho. Ive done bailiff duty before during a "voire dire", its the fancy court word for jury selection.

There will be a bunch of ppl there...the judge, prosecution, defense and possibly defendant there as well. The judge will ask a bunch of questions to all the possible jurors. Stuff like do you know the defendant? Have you ever been victim of a crime ? a bunch of questions. If you say yes to any of them the judge will ask will that make you biased ? blah blah blahbity blah. If the judge thinks you will be biased they might dismiss you. Near the end the defense and prosection will have the opprotunity to ask you questions and dismiss you as well.

Its interesting sitting in on those things.

P.s make sure you turn off your cell phone. Ive been in courtrooms where if your phone rings you get chewed out by the judge and get a fine for disrupting the courtroom.

 

[astronaut]

I think if you're still in high school then you don't have to serve. You have to tell them. They say those in high school "don't have enough understanding of the judicial system" or something like that.

I have jury duty this month actually.

 

[MACATTAK]

I don't think being unregistered/registered to vote has much to do with it. I was unregistered for years, and got called almost every single year. I've been many times, but never on a jury. Some judges are really understanding, while others don't really give a crap as to why you can't serve (though I'm sure you won't have to serve since you are still in HS). I'm sure it gets redundant with the excuses people give, but still.
I'll never forget one judge I got, she talked about herself for at least an hour before we even got to jury selection.

 

[User35]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MACATTAK I'll never forget one judge I got, she talked about herself for at least an hour before we even got to jury selection.

yeah lol judges LOOVE to hear themselves speak. Sometimes I'll sit in court and just want to go fucking postal.

 

[janieboo]

..........

 

[noahlowryfan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MACATTAK I don't think being unregistered/registered to vote has much to do with it. I was unregistered for years, and got called almost every single year. I've been many times, but never on a jury. Some judges are really understanding, while others don't really give a crap as to why you can't serve (though I'm sure you won't have to serve since you are still in HS). I'm sure it gets redundant with the excuses people give, but still. I'll never forget one judge I got, she talked about herself for at least an hour before we even got to jury selection.

It really depends on what state you live. I'm not sure if its all of CA but where I live, in order to be pick to go to jury duty, you have to be registered to vote or have CA ID or driver's license. They pick your name randomly from a list of people that has one of these items.

 

[gildedangel]

In my state you have to be a registered voter to be called. Even if I was called I would probably not be able to serve as I live in a different state for most of the year lol. Kinda hard to serve when you are 100's of miles away at school! I will share though that my mom has been called for jury duty 6 times, but could only go once because everytime she was called (except for the last time) we were in the middle of moving out of state. We moved a lot hahaha!

 

[staceb1990]

Thanks everyone for your replies! I think I'll send them a letter and let them know that I'm still in high school, I doubt they'll have me serve then.
My dad told me that he's only been called once, but because it was in the middle of tax season (he's an accountant), they didn't make him serve.

 

[noahlowryfan]

I have been called to serve twice. One time, we went into the courtroom for jury selection but they settle the case so everyone who was in the courtroom got dismissed. The second time, I didn't get called for jury selection so I get to go home. Hopefully, I won't get called again.