So, you think you should be allowed out of jury duty ...?

Lauging is good for the soul. My boss told me that when his wife got her JD he took their six year old to the ceremony and of course there were lawyer jokes during the proceedings. According to him Timmy wanted to know why every one was laughing because the jokes were not funny, and Doug replied, well son they are lawyer jokes.

Egads had a typo and corrected it, great feature.

No, it is an obligation that must be fulfilled - like voting!

A few years ago, I served on a jury, and found it fascinating. We could have convicted on one of two counts, one of the counts incorporating the other. Every one thought that the woman should be convicted of the lesser charge. I believed that she was guilty of the greater. I convinced the eleven other people. (Maybe they just wanted me to shut up so that they could go home. )

I have never been called for jury duty and I have been a registered voter since I was 21. I have wondered if I could volunteer as all of the people I know who have served have enjoyed the experience.

I've only ever been "invited" for jury duty once. I was in the military and stationed in Germany at the time. The State of CT was pretty adamant that I show up.. or else.. I told them I'd be happy to. All they had to do was buy my trans-Atlantic plane ticket and I'd be sure to be there. They excused me pretty quickly after that.

It used to be, in NY, that you'd be automatically excused due to simply being a lawyer. That was changed after we moved away.

I've been called for jury duty twice here in Mass. The first time, we just sat around. The second time, we got as far as voir dire (where the attorneys try to figure out whether they want you on the panel). I was dismissed after about two questions, neither of which were about my degree/former profession.

I figure the third time's the charm.

Been called twice, first time sat on a murder trial. When the judge told the jury it was a murder trial it was like letting the air our of a hot air balloon. The prep and the victim were both scum, but murder was done, tried and convicted. The second time they had selected a jury before it got to me!

Those are great. Which trial was it- the Rodney King beating? that one of the jurors showed up everyday wearing a Star Trek uniform?

My ex gets called to serve but is never chosen, he is a sociologist, why is he so out of favor as a juror by both sides?

Prosecuting attorneys do not like to seat people who are in any social service position. I think the rationale is that people in those fields would be soft on criminals. It seems to me that the defense attorneys would love to have them on juries.

I don't know one single person who has ever served on a jury, let alone been subpoenaed for jury duty. They are not that common here, being mandatory only in murder cases. In other criminal cases they are an option usually not chosen. Jury trials are almost non-existent in civil cases.

In that page that Jespah linked, there was one potential juror who asked to be excused on the basis of contempt for corporate lawyers. That might work for me. I've never been called for jury duty, but i've been in court many times as a witness for my employer, or because i filed a complaint--and so, have witnessed many, many cases as the judge works through her list. I've seen a judge who did not know the meaning of the word "geriatric;" i've only once encountered a lawyer in a court who was able to trade words with me at my level (i've a lazy mind, but being in court seems to bring out a sharpness in my ability to riposte which is not evident in my everyday life)--and that was a standoff; time and again i've seen lawyers, whether for the defense or the prosecution who arrived totally unprepared; i've never seen the arresting officer in court, although his/her appearance would clinch the conviction for most judges; in the worst case i've ever seen, just after the judge had seated herself, the PD looked over at me (i was a witness for a family-shelter organization which had called for DCFS to remove children left home alone by their mother) and asked me my name--I stood up and gave my name, to which the PD responded, "Oh yes, i spoke to you already." I stated: "No you have not--in fact, you have never seen me before this morning." I then sat down. There was silence for a moment, and then angry whispering between PD and client, at which point the Judge called the PD to the bench. This was followed by more angry whispering (at this point, i noticed the prosecutor, who had also never seen me before, nor spoken to me, smiling bemusedly at me). The PD went back to her client, the whispered heatedly for a while, and then the PD went over to the prosecutor and whispered for a while--finally the PD stood up and stated that the defendant agreed to plead to child endangerment, with the prosecutor agreeing to ask that jail-time be waived, and the defendant would enroll in a parenting program. When i was leaving, which coincided with the lunch break, the prosecutor came up to me and said that i had made her life pretty easy. I told her she was lucky i couldn't bill her, because she'd owe me at least $500.00 for the last hour. By and large, i've never seen a big dramatic case in court, but have seen dozens and dozens of examples of the small misfortunes of the "faceless" members of society. I should add that my father graduated cum laude from Fordham, and summa cum laude from Fordham Law, with a double-major in corporate and constitutional law in 1939. As he is a life-long, accomplished drunkard with a near total contempt for the rest of the human race, i'd had better training in dealing with lawyers by the time i was 18 than most judges sitting on superior court benches.

Phoenix, David is not in the social services field, he has a Phd in Sociology and teachs at a University in San Deigo.

Joanne- ANYTHING that is even vaguely sociological or psychological is anathema to prosecutors. Since there are a certain number of potential jurors who can be dismissed without cause, the folks who work in those areas are usually the first to go.

Oh I did not know that. Does not seem fair though.

I have been eligible for jury duty in New York for thirty-two years and was called to duty regularly every two years until they cut down automatic excuses for many professions. It is now about every four years. For roughly fifteen years, I was never accepted as a juror. Just as certain professions are desired by defense lawyers and opposed by prosecutors, others are the reverse. I, as a retired military officer who brought court martial charges against some of my airmen, was a bane in the eyes of the defense. In recent years however, the amount of preemptive challenges (no explanation necessary) allowed has been reduced, and I have been frequently impaneled. It is amost always an enjoyable experience, not to mention being an act of civic resposibility.

I was reminded of this topic today because, you guessed, I had jury duty.