Comments on: Jury Duty – Is it a Bigger Burden in the Current Business and Economic Climate?

By: Pam

Pam — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 19:06:18 +0000

I have always wanted to do jury duty. Unfortunately at the time I got "the letter" I was also deep in the midst of my battle with Lupus and was a guinea pig in an investigational clinical trial. The clinical trial necessitated for me to fly to Houston every few months to check in with the research docs and wouldn't ya know I was due there during the same time period I was being summoned for jury duty. I replied very nicely that I wanted to do jury duty however.... and explained my problem. They let me out of jury duty and have never called me again. I would still like to do jury duty.

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By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 14:16:38 +0000

Paula - you are right that laws vary from state to state. In some states, employers are required to pay your wages for a certain amount of time, but sadly only if you are a FT employee. PT and self-employed don't count for them. I was also just called for jury duty in CT, so I read up on it. Here, if you are employed full-time your employer must continue to pay your regular wages for the first five days. After that time, the state pays you $50/day for your troubles, and your employer is off the hook (although luckily I work in higher education and they will continue to pay no matter how long my jury duty lasts).

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By: Nina

Nina — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 14:02:47 +0000

By the way, for the record... I've been called three times and served once. It lasted over two weeks (yes, two+ weeks!) and was a civil trial in Detroit, Michigan. I was in my mid-twenties and found it fascinating, but then again, my employer was paying me the entire time I served. I feel like I've done my duty... but, yes, I've shown up the other two times I've been called. Last December was the most recent in Orange County, CA. I sat there an entire day waiting to get picked. One plus: The courthouse had WiFi so I didn't miss a beat with work.

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By: Serena

Serena — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 13:47:54 +0000

Sorry about the poor syntax - I didn't mean to imply that breast feeding mothers are unhealthy.

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By: Nina

Nina — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 13:45:56 +0000

Jason: Where's your sense of humor? Jury duty is right up there with tax day. And by the way, I'm getting calls daily from friends getting pink-slipped... so yes, the unemployed - especially in the 2009 economy - are more likely to be my peers.

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By: Serena

Serena — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 13:43:31 +0000

Uh, oh . . . I guess I'm the one in the "civic duty camp." I would hope that educated people would want to serve on juries, because the "justice" system is whole-heartedly rigged against people who can't afford a good lawyer. In understand it's inconvenient. And for breast feeding mothers, or people on chemo or dialysis . . . yeah, you should get a pass. But if you're healthy (thank God), you should serve on a jury.

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By: Paula

Paula — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 13:42:26 +0000

Of course right now Jason -- the unemployed probably IS a group of many of our peers with the tens of thousands of layoffs and company closings. I happen to be thankful also about living in a country with a judicial system that is far better than many other places of the world. Every person needs to choose for their own situation whether they have a hardship reasons to miss/defer serving or not. I'm certainly not advocating going to great lengths to avoid it, just presenting perspectives and interesting viewpoints and my own experience.

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By: Jason

Jason — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 13:39:10 +0000

Do you really consider the unemployed a group of your peers? I hope if I am ever subject to a jury trial (God forbid) and am innocent that a group of my employed peers has enough respect for the system to participate. While I also detest jury duty, and complain about it when summoned, I do not make any efforts to "beat" the system. We are extremely fortunate to live in a country where jury by a trial of peers is an option. Please consider this the next time you try and dodge your responsibility as a citizen of this country. The inconvenience of jury duty is a small price to pay.

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By: Chris @ BuildMyBudget

Chris @ BuildMyBudget — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 05:18:14 +0000

I agree whole-heartedly Nina. I was recently called in for j-duty and I did everything I could to get out of it. I probably embarrassed myself with how hard I tried to convince everyone I shouldn't be there. It was interesting..but just not "this week!"

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By: Nina

Nina — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:45:50 +0000

Paula: "Everybody likes jury duty -- just not this week." That pretty much sums up my sentiment. I think people collecting unemployment benefits should be first on the list to get summoned... doesn't that make sense??

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