I got a summons in the mail yesterday. What?!? A summons? The government of New Brunswick saw it fit to think that I may be fit to serve on a jury. The document said that the trial is expected to last 7 weeks.
Now, I’ve been called to jury duty years ago when I lived in Newfoundland. About 200 potential jurors showed up, were counted, endured roll call only to hear the defendant’s lawyer say that they were electing trial by judge. Whew! A close call. Only three hours of my life wasted.
But I don’t have such a good feeling about this one. I think this could be “the one”… I don’t think I could purposely attempt to throw the selection process and get booted. But I don’t want to spend 7 weeks away from work and life to serve on a jury.
I don’t know anyone who has actually gone through participating in a trial by jury (other than a few guys from the old neighbourhood, but they were defendants). Anybody out there been through it? Any advice?
Jody
October 18, 2006 at 10:54 am
I have never been called for jury duty, but it sounds interesting.
My biggest worry would be getting compensated for work missed. Does your employeer pay you? Does the government?
Donna
October 18, 2006 at 11:30 am
Did you realize that could run into Xmas…they wouldn’t do that to people would they??? That would be difficult…
rekounas
October 18, 2006 at 11:30 am
Go in wearing assless chaps. I am sure you will get thrown out
Steve
October 18, 2006 at 12:15 pm
I think your employer is obligated to pay you if you are selected for jury duty, but I’m not sure.
Greg, loan me your pink assless chaps, will you? You know, the ones with the frills…
Pender
October 18, 2006 at 12:48 pm
According to my mother it’s easy to either get in or out of jury duty. If you WANT to do it, look them all straight in the eye and answer their questions directly. Be sure to wear a suit or something nice to give a good impression. If you don’t want to do it, don’t look them in the eye and say “I don’t know” and “probably” a lot and just wear jeans and a tshirt. They don’t waste a lot of time on each individual, so they basically have to go by first impressions, so just give a bad impression.
rekounas
October 18, 2006 at 4:21 pm
I don’t know about pink ones, but you can borrow my leather ones.
On that topic, a few years back, in Saint John, I was on my way to a wedding when I noticed a parade of Harley’s driving towards Garden St. I could see there was police at the back of the line with their lights on but no siren. As they got closer, I noticed the guy in the front wasn’t wearing a shirt. As he drove by me in the opposite direction, I noticed he was naked!
Apparently, he was being carted off to jail that day and he wanted to have a good time before he went in. I think they charged him with resisting arrest, indecent exposure, and a DUI.
If you go, go out big!
Dave
October 19, 2006 at 10:42 am
Just tell the judge and lawyers that you hate everybody, have not paid your taxes in years and like to burn things. I think that will safely get you out of jury duty but it may not get you home for Christmas. I think someone tried that once and spend the next 7 weeks undergoing a psyc evaluation followed by a couple of years of intense Revenue Canada observation
gary
October 19, 2006 at 1:00 pm
three little words “fry the bastard” you’ll be home in an hour.
Steve
October 19, 2006 at 1:18 pm
Yeah… but I can’t make it look too obvious. I need to behave in such a way that it tricks my conscience into believing I was really being sincere. You know, fake sincerity so well, even I believe it.
Dave: your idea is kind of ok, but I’m not really bent on getting probed by Revenue Canada (pardon the pun).
gary
October 20, 2006 at 10:16 am
try: ” sir i believe that the justice system in this country is way to lenient on the criminals and has no empathy for the victems of said. even if found guilty of the crime of which he is accused and getting double time off his sentence for time served, and having to do maybe a third of his sentence before being released back into society and the rate of recidivism , this whole process is for naught. slap him on the wrist and let him go. thank you. can i go home now?” might work
Steve
October 20, 2006 at 10:27 am
I had to look up fficial" rel="nofollow">recidivism
but this sounds like a good idea, not only for the courts, but for marriage, the job, and everyday life!
Jody
October 20, 2006 at 11:26 am
Getting out of jury duty is a popular topic on the World Wide Web. Here’s one of the better ones:
gary
October 20, 2006 at 1:31 pm
i do alot of crosswords
Steve
October 20, 2006 at 1:35 pm
I found out that if I am selected I will have to start serving on the jury that very day! Also, I will be paid $40 per day plus mileage, but my employer is not obligated to pay me any part of my regular salary while I’m serving as a juror.
The trial is expected to last 7 weeks! I’d go bankrupt.
Pender
October 20, 2006 at 2:08 pm
How can you possibly offer an objective opinion based on facts while you’re sitting in the jury booth seething with blind rage? Getting paid 8x less than your normal salary and disrupting your life for almost 2 months.. I’d have to kill someone. HAVE to.
and they have the gall to call it justice
gary
October 20, 2006 at 2:17 pm
a jury is suposed to be made of a group of your “peers”, so as you have not done anything to be arrested for you can not be considered one of the accused “peers” unless he’s being tried for trying to get out of jury duty
Jody
October 20, 2006 at 2:51 pm
> a jury is suposed to be made of a group of your “peers”
Is that stated somewhere official? Murderers should be judging murderers then: “Man, first, you used an ELECTRIC chainsaw, and worse, you weren’t wearing safety goggles! And people are calling you a murderer. You’re BARELY a murderer.”
Steve
October 20, 2006 at 3:16 pm
“jury of peers” is part of the American lexicon. However, according to this site, nowhere in the US Consitution does it say you have the right to a jury consisting of your peers.
Donna
October 20, 2006 at 4:09 pm
Ya gotta be joking about not gettin’ paid by your employer if you are elected part of the jury…sure that is crime in itself, don’t ya think? What happens if you refuse to be part of the jury?
Steve
October 20, 2006 at 5:10 pm
I checked it out. The employer is not obligated by law to pay you. However, my employer will pay me if I’m chosen. (I could have used that as an excuse to get out of it.) Oh well.
Jody
November 12, 2006 at 11:35 am
How about an update on this? Were you selected for duty? If so, what’s the case and when does it begin?
Steve
November 12, 2006 at 4:13 pm
I have to go for the selection process on Nov 20. I don’t know what the case is, nor will I before that date. If I am selected, I simply stay there… the trial starts that day. I have a letter from work indicating the inconvenience to the company and the team I manage if I am chosen. We’ll see how that works.
rekounas
November 12, 2006 at 7:49 pm
Can you bring a blackberry with you? Problem solved
Steve
November 22, 2006 at 9:03 am
Well, I went. It was a long, kind of interesting process that literally saw the luck of the draw counting me out. I went armed with a letter from my employer stately roughly that there will be projects and staff left ill-attended if I was pulled for jury duty for any significant length of time. But I didn’t need it.
When I arrived, I had to check in. Then I was herded into the courtroom. In there, they ushered in the defendant, read his charges (quite a list!) and then took roll call again (there was 117 people there). Once that was done, the judge talked a little about what the jury’s responsibility was. Then they rearranged the list by drawing all 117 names out of a hat, one at a time, reading it aloud and writing it down. I was number 86 out of 117. Everyone then went into the courtroom next door and was called in, one at a time, back into the other courtroom to be interviewed for acceptance to or rejection from the jury. The got to around number 50 and they had all 12 selected. The rest of us were thanked and excused.
The whole process took around 4 hours.
Steve
January 25, 2007 at 10:57 am
Update: The guy was convicted and the sentence came out today. He was sentenced to 3.5 years. However, he was held since his arrest in August 2005. In N.B. you get double time credit for time served, so he has to stay in jail only another 8 months.
Pender
January 29, 2007 at 2:46 pm
What if he wasn’t convicted, what happens to his time served? Why did it take that long for him to go to trial? Man, that’s nuts.
Steve
January 29, 2007 at 3:19 pm
I think they add the time back on to his life, so he’ll live longer to make up for the lost time.