TPB, a lawyer specializing in family law, got jury duty recently. I found his thoughts on jury duty from the lawyerly perspective to be particularly interesting. “There’s nothing like using fear as a motivator for people who were kind enough to show up for their civic duty.”
From my experience, his suggestions on getting removed are not entirely accurate. “Act like you’re reasonably intelligent, have a decent income, and a clue about what the hell’s going on, and you’re pretty much guaranteed to get removed from a jury.” Didn’t work for me, alas. But the bit where he debates with himself as to whether he can put aside his interpretation of the law… that was the hard question for me, too, and I’m just an opinionated potzer.
2 Comments
I know it makes things easier, but it just seems inhumane to call people back who don’t get selected. Dallas doesn’t – if you make it through the daywithout being picked, you’re safe for three months or so. I’d rather lose one day every three months than three consecutive days every year.
I wonder how long it will be before they ask what blogs you read along with newspapers, magazines and teevee. I guess it’s not too important for most cases.
I agree. California doesn’t call people back who don’t get picked, and it’s much easier on people.