OT: Experience with Federal jury duty

[sjbraun]

I've been summoned to Federal jury duty. While I don't mind serving, as always, jury duty is inconvenient. Fortunately, my employer will pay me for attending, but no one does my work when I'm not there.
My summons is for the week beginning July 2, the same week we'd planned to start our vacation. Do any of you who have experience with the Federal courts think any new trials will be started during the week that includes the 4th of July? I can request to reschedule my service for another week, but I'm wondering if its likely that my service will be cancelled due to holiday week.

Any thoughts?

[oldpotatoe]

I've been summoned to Federal jury duty. While I don't mind serving, as always, jury duty is inconvenient. Fortunately, my employer will pay me for attending, but no one does my work when I'm not there.
My summons is for the week beginning July 2, the same week we'd planned to start our vacation. Do any of you who have experience with the Federal courts think any new trials will be started during the week that includes the 4th of July? I can request to reschedule my service for another week, but I'm wondering if its likely that my service will be cancelled due to holiday week.

Any thoughts?

Do this, if submitted early enough they almost always approve it. It 'may' still go on with a day 'off' on July 4th..

[Birddog]

I served once on a federal jury and it was really laid back. They were not in any hurry to finish. The actual court time was about 4 hrs or less per day. The case I served on could have easily been finished up on a Weds afternoon but we were dismissed early and scheduled to appear on Thurs to finish. The judge had some out of court work to do (golf). They didn't care that a couple of us were self employed and that a day lost stays lost. Other than that, it was a very professional and efficient process though somewhat slow IMO. Apparently it takes time to dot all those i's and cross all those t's. In our case, the judge met us in chambers after the trial and answered all the questions we had and explained the back story which was very informative. I have served 3 times, once Fed and twice in district. I found it humorous that in each case after trial in the Q and A. the judges expressed surprise that I was picked as I seemed to them to have strong opinions.
Sorry I can't directly answer your question.

[unterhausen]

All I have done is go to voir dire for a federal case. To be perfectly honest, there were two obvious questions that they could have asked in writing and disqualified half the jury pool. Which would have saved us all a lot of driving, 4 hours in my case.
But otherwise, it was done pretty well, and I think they will honor a request to let you go on vacation. My guess is they will not move you to another jury pool.

The trial in my case was sometime in the future, not right away. Same thing for the local trials I have been in the jury pool for, the court date has always been in the future.

[bobswire]

The best thing about turning 70 years of age was you no longer had to serve Jury Duty (at least in Calif.). I realize it is a public service but the cases I did serve on or was called in for were a waste of time and waste of tax dollars that should have been handled through arbitration (he said, she said)

[rwsaunders]

A client of mine served for 9 months; every Wednesday; on a Federal Grand Jury. It required him to drive from a small town in Ohio to Columbus, staying overnight in a decent hotel and dining out on the taxpayer. He loved it but he had the time to kill and his wife would go with him and make a day of it.

[pinkshogun]

Can you get a Paceline exemption stating "I wouldn't want to miss any good deals in the Classifieds"

[Idris Icabod]

I got called to report about a month ago. Went through Jury selection, started with about 70 and quickly went to 40ish because it was a case of distribution and downloading of child pornography and many people quickly said that they could not make an unbiased opinion and were dismissed. There were no other cases that week so dismissal meant an early exit. Selection took around 4 hours and the case was scheduled/estimated for 4 days. It seemed like it would be a very interesting case albeit the prospect of having to see the evidence made me uneasy and in retrospect I'm glad as a father of 2 young girls I didn't have to see what was being downloaded.

The 13 selected were generally of the lower educated and also there was a clear selection to the younger demographic with no children/grandchildren which makes sense. There were 3 Ph.D. and 2 MD in the selection pool and none of us made the jury. I sat next to a 50ish lady who I constantly had to remind not to talk about what had happened in the court room and who's thought trail were like a ping-pong ball (her opinion on diabetics healing themselves was enlightening but incredibly stupid), she made the jury!

Switch off your phone! We were told this multiple times by the court staff prior to entering the court room. One guy got a $50 fine for receiving a text during selection, so he lost the $40 you get paid and was $10 down for the day!

[Tickdoc]

been knocking on wood since reading this post. I just renewed my drivers license and that always seems to trigger jury duty.:eek:

[Idris Icabod]

been knocking on wood since reading this post. I just renewed my drivers license and that always seems to trigger jury duty.:eek:

I renewed my drivers license a few weeks before getting called!

[EDS]

I've been summoned to Federal jury duty. While I don't mind serving, as always, jury duty is inconvenient. Fortunately, my employer will pay me for attending, but no one does my work when I'm not there.
My summons is for the week beginning July 2, the same week we'd planned to start our vacation. Do any of you who have experience with the Federal courts think any new trials will be started during the week that includes the 4th of July? I can request to reschedule my service for another week, but I'm wondering if its likely that my service will be cancelled due to holiday week.

Any thoughts?

Reschedule for another holiday week.

[unterhausen]

the local jury pool selection seems grossly unfair, I have been called 3 times and I know a lot of people that have never been called. The locals make absolutely no effort to make it less burdensome to anyone, the room is hot and the seating uncomfortable and you are elbow to elbow. They have actually made it worse since the first time I went, nobody leaves until the end. It is incredibly boring. I suppose they don't have to do anything about it, the law is on their side. On the plus side, the state just raised the pay so that it actually covers lunch now.

The one thing I learned last time is that you should look deep into your heart and see if you can be fair. I was in the first group selected for a civil trial. I realized after the fact that I was deeply prejudiced against any truck driver that ignores road construction signs and suffers losses as a result.

I'm also a little disgruntled that they are really just using me for room filler, because Ph.D. engineers are are almost never selected to serve on a jury.

[Ken Robb]

In San Diego our notices say we can come in 2 weeks before or 2 weeks after the date we are scheduled to report without any advance notice. Just bring you summons and turn it in. Usually we only have to be present one day and go home if not empaneled. My wife had to stand by for a phoned summons for one more day.

[Birddog]

been knocking on wood since reading this post. I just renewed my drivers license and that always seems to trigger jury duty.:eek:
It's not because you renewed, in OK the jury lottery is based on your DL. If you have a DL you are in the pool they draw from.

[cinema]

a little secret, you can just ignore it.

just kidding nsa, never done that, nope.

[tumbler]

I doubt that they would send you a summons for that week and then cancel it entirely because of the holiday. They generally just shut down for the holiday and then pick back up on the next business day.

One question: Does your first day of jury duty fall before your first day of vacation?

I just served on a trial for 2 weeks. One thing I noticed during the jury selection process on day 1 was that anyone who had a trip planned that would likely overlap with the trial was immediately dismissed by the judge and still received credit for attending, just like the folks who were dismissed for having extreme views or whatever other excuse they could come up with. There wasn't any real discussion, they just thanked them for showing up and dismissed them.

If your trip isn't until later in the week, you may be able to show up, get dismissed (or serve on a quick trial), and still receive credit for serving in this cycle. Some of this may depend on the court or the judge, but just something to consider if you are available part of the week before going on vacation. On our trial, we went longer than planned and someone had a trip that overlapped for the very last day. They told the judge, he dismissed them, and they used the alternate juror for that last day. While inefficient, I found them to be very reasonable about things.

[Kirk007]

Depends on so many things including the judge(s)(most important), the docket, any speedy trial issues, last minute settlements. Some judges love trying cases and if not on vacation would think little of starting a trial, adjourning for the 4th and back at it on the 5th (although with the 4th on a Wednesday that does screw things up a bit, but jury selection could take Monday, Tuesday, start on Thursday. Other judges will use holidays to mess with lawyers and increase pressure to settle cases. I clerked for a US District Court judge who hated trying cases (yes, quite ironic) and he would think nothing of using holidays and vacation plans to squeeze lawyers and clients. Now he was a jerk, but he's not the only one. If you want certainty, try to move it now rather than rolling the dice.