2nd time I won

[Eck]

Last week I received a letter in the mail telling me I was a candidate and won the Huntsville, Alabama "JURY DUTY LOTTO" and that I had to be appear for Juror orientation on Monday 10-05-2015 @ 8am.

 

So without any choice in the matter, I attended orientation and then all of us were hurdled up to the 6th floor to sit and wait on our names to be called.

2:30pm, we were informed that the case was resolved between the attorneys and judge and that all of us could go home and that we would not be needed anymore this week.

 

We had to wait for our names to be called so that we could return our free parking garage pass and Juror ID tag that they gave us and to also receive our $10.00 paycheck (for the days wages).

I told the lady to keep my check and I signed the back of it and handed it back to her.

 

So now I am relieved for now until next time I am notified of winning!

 

It has been over 25 years since I won the Jury duty lotto

[SilvrT]

Ten dollars for the day? That sux! Did they buy lunch also or?

[slowrollwv]

Eck I was on the lotto list twice in four months up here and didn't get to trial on either time. Had to laugh at the wife though she hit the lottery the next month after she chuckled at me.

[djh3]

Seriously??? $10 what they figure its maybe an hours worth of your time? I mean I dont expect to get my hourly salary as it is "civic duty" and all. but dont insult me with not even enough to by lunch.

[eusa1]

one of the perks of being a registered voter!! lol sounds like some folks here have never won the lotto, it's only 7 bucks here in Illinois

[Eck]

Ten dollars for the day? That sux! Did they buy lunch also or?

 

What we were told yesterday in class was that it costs the state of Alabama over 2.5 million an year for Jurors. That is a lot of tax dollars we must pay..

Not sure what your country does or how much it cost them /you or if you even have jury duty up there though.

As for the $10 bucks, well it is basically to buy your lunch (as long as you eat a light meal and drink water).

I did forget to mention that the court also paid me .005 cents a mile to drive there and back home. It didn't matter because I gave the check back to them anyway.

In the states here, if you never sign up to vote you will never be called upon by the court system to serve on Jury Duty from what I understand.

I signed up so that I could vote, and by doing so this is only a part of my duty as a citizen and I have no problem serving called upon.

Note: If you are employed and are called upon, your employer shall, by law, pay you for your days wages minus the $10.00, so you really make your same days pay and are getting a day or week off from work (with pay).

.

[GAWildKat]

Last month I was summoned for jury duty in superior court starting yesterday. I was medically excused. Saturday I was summoned to serve in state court next month. Again, I will be medically excused. Georgia no longer takes people for the jury pools from just voter registration. Your state issued license or ID marks you for the pool. Car registrations, and bills can also be used to locate potential jurors as I was informed today. The jury pools are also selected in Atlanta and the local county has no way to track pool members who were selected for duty in a different court within the same county.

[Brake Pad]

I got called two weeks ago, they picked # 1-192 after a second day they let everyone go I was #228:clap2:

[uncledj]

I've been selected twice. I got out of the first one as it would burden my employer, ...went for the second one only to find I wasn't needed. Case dismissed or delayed or something like that.

I just sent in another registration for it, so I'm guessing I'll get called again soon.

I know it's supposed to be our duty and all, but I don't see how in a "free" society it can be compulsory.

 

Heck, my wife is thrilled when she gets called. She's hoping to eventually get called to be on a Grand Jury.

 

The one I got out of WAS a Grand Jury, so there's no telling how long that could have taken. Imagine if you were on the jury for the OJ trial or the like. The loss of income could put you into bankruptcy.

[BlueSky]

Well Eck, make sure you report that $10 wage on your 2015 tax return. Since you signed the check you received the income and giving it away is not a deduction!

[bkuhr]

Note: If you are employed and are called upon, your employer shall, by law, pay you for your days wages minus the $10.00, so you really make your same days pay and are getting a day or week off from work (with pay).

.

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Interesting hearing how other states work. Here is Kentucky.

I have the duty for the entire month, Circuit court, It is a pool of 110. Grand jury 12 selected from pool and only meet 1 day/week. After the first day orientation it is just call in to see if needed the next day.Currently off duty for entire week. Per the juror handbook, in Kentucky it Is the law that an employer must give you time off and can not compel you to "get excused", but does NOT have to pay lost wages. My employer DOES pay wages, and does not even withhold jury pay of $5 pay + $7.50 reimbursement=$12.50/day. Also juror roles come from Voter reg, Operator Lisc, State tax returns. They actually gave us the court schedule for the month, reflecting cases every Tuesday and Thursday, but said that most cases would be canceled, settled or deferred. If called the entire remaining pool is called, and jurors chosen at that time. Excused from duty if been a juror in any court in last 2 years.

[djh3]

I was selected way back in about 1982 or something. By letter as the interweb wasn't born yet. So I open my letter from Sarasota Circuit Courts and found I had been selected. I called the number the next morning when I got off duty. Informed the lady I would be more than happy to serve, they just needed to pay my transportation from Oklahoma to Fla and contact my Command section. She asked if I was in the military, and I told her yes Ma'am. She said thank you, and I will take you off the list. It was done off drivers licence way back then also. Luckily I haven't been called since. Watch, now I'll have to go to it though that I'm talking about it.

[BlueSky]

I've been on 2 jurys. One was a murder trial where some dude shot his wife. Claimed it was an accident and those boxes she just brought home for him to pack his stuff in to move out didn't matter. Convicted of Voluntary manslaughter. He was guilty of 2nd degree murder but two coo coo birds (women) didn't want to convict him. One who was a school teacher wanted to find him not guilty. Another just couldn't believe he could kill his wife with malice! He was handsome. We compromised on Voluntary manslaughter. The judge gave him the maximum sentence for voluntary manslaughter.

 

The 2nd was a divorce case. It was embarassing to listen to all the garbage and especially how lousy their sex was. I was glad when that one was over.

[ReinyRooster]

"how lousy their sex was"......wait a minute.......there's supposed to be sex in a marriage????

[Snaggletooth]

It was a couple decades back I felt like I was the "Go To" guy for jury duty. Seemed like I was on the list every time a case came up. Spent many hours waiting for the selection process, waiting some more for the cases to go to trial and many being resolved before it made into the courtroom. Got sent home a lot after they dropped the case or settled it prior to court. I got to the point I was trying new ways to be excluded from the process. During the jury selection process questioning I came up with a couple questions of my own. The one that usually got me home by lunch was "How far apart are the guys eyes?"

 

Thank you sir, you may go.

 

Not that I was slacking on my duty, I'd just had my fill of sitting through absolutely moronic civil cases. Somebody whining because the neighbors security lights were too bright. Another one was over a hedge that wasn't trimmed to one persons standard. Another because they could smell the chorline in the neighbors pool. Why does this stuff even make to the courts?

 

The last one i got called for I sat through 3 days of jury selection. They went though over a hundred people before they found what they wanted. Told to report the next morning. When the opening statements started we were told it was a case involving three counts of felony rape against a young man involving a 13 year old girl. Well, dang. This shouldn't take too long right? Probably won't even get a lunch out of this one.

 

My mistake. The presentation alone by the lawyers from both sides, the families from boths sides, the witnesses, the experts and other assorted concerned parties took over a week. Then the deliberation by our little tribe of concerned citizens started. That was a whole new experience. Spent just a few days short of three weeks in the jury room.

 

Even my boss got involved. He wasn't happy about me being gone for that long even though I was going into the office at night trying to keep my desk afloat during my absence. He wanted to know who the idiot judge was that kept people away from their jobs was. Turned out the "idiot" was an old friend and good golf buddy of my great leader. I don't know exactly what all went down after that phone call he made to the "idiot" but never heard another word from the boss about jury duty after that.

 

I'm getting carried away here but the point is that when you get involved in jury duty a lot of facts come to light that most people never hear or see in the news. 12 people walked into that courtroom with a mindset of how it was going to go down by the end of the day. Me included. When you get down the facts, the actual truth, things can change. It's a slow process but hopefully it works when it should. If it don't, there's not much hope for anyone.

 

I quit grumping about jury duty after that.

[Flyinfool]

Back around 1980 I got my winning letter from the court system.

At that time the process was to go down to the court house every day and sit in a big room with about 300 other people and listen for your name to be called. Once they got to a point where they knew they would not need to fill any more juries for the day everyone got sent home. They always tried to do the send home before noon, usually by just minutes. But you still had to report in the next day. The noon let out was a big deal to them. They paid jurrors by the half day, $5 per half day.

 

During my 2 weeks of duty I was called for 5 cases. the first 3 were drunk driving cases. There were some interesting excuses. even though none of them worked. The 4th was an armed robbery case, he was guilty to. The 5th I was called for jury selection on the last day of my 2 week stint, along with everyone still left in the big room. The judge said up front that the trial would last at least 3 months. It was something about a building renovation gone wrong where the building owner was suing the builder and the builder was suing the architecture firm that designed it, all rolled up into one big mess, with millions of $$$$ involved. I was able to escape that one because they did not want any engineers in the jury.

 

I did learn the tricks of the trade though. IF the jury deliberated through lunch time the court is required to feed you because you must remain sequestered once deliberation starts. If lunch break happens during the trial you are on your own for lunch. There were a couple of cases where the trial and deliberation was all done just before lunch, I was all to happy to explain that if we delay just a bit longer that we will get free lunch. And they did serve very good meals, They want happy jurors.

 

I never won again since then. My boss on the other hand is a winner every other year.

[Barrycuda]

Last week I received a letter in the mail telling me I was a candidate and won the Huntsville, Alabama "JURY DUTY LOTTO" and that I had to be appear for Juror orientation on Monday 10-05-2015 @ 8am.

 

So without any choice in the matter, I attended orientation and then all of us were hurdled up to the 6th floor to sit and wait on our names to be called.

2:30pm, we were informed that the case was resolved between the attorneys and judge and that all of us could go home and that we would not be needed anymore this week.

 

We had to wait for our names to be called so that we could return our free parking garage pass and Juror ID tag that they gave us and to also receive our $10.00 paycheck (for the days wages).

I told the lady to keep my check and I signed the back of it and handed it back to her.

 

So now I am relieved for now until next time I am notified of winning!

 

It has been over 25 years since I won the Jury duty lotto

 

 

congrats Eck. I had to deal with that about 6 months ago and like you, needed to wait to see if I was going to stay. Happy to say I was outta there!!

[SilvrT]

Here in Canada, specifically the province of British Columbia ....

 

Your name is picked from the Provincial voter's list

You are required to respond to your jury summons.

Under the Employment Standards Act, an employer must not terminate employment or change a condition of employment without the employee’s written consent. Upon returning from jury duty, the employer must either place you in the position you held before going on jury duty or a comparable position.

Under the Employment Standards Act, an employer is not obligated to pay you for lost wages incurred during jury duty. But you are considered to be in continuous employment for the purposes of calculating annual vacation, termination entitlements, as well as pension, medical or other employee benefit plans. You are also entitled to all increases in wages and benefits you would have received if not on jury duty.

 

You will receive a fee for each day you serve, paid after jury duty is completed.

The entitlement for each day spent attending at a sitting or trial is as follows:

 

• $20 a day for each of the first 10 days;
  
• $60 a day for the 11 to the 49 days; and
  
• $100 a day commencing on the 50th day of sitting.
  

Jurors are responsible for their own lunches during a trial. Tea and coffee will be served. When a jury is deliberating a verdict, necessary meals and accommodation will be provided.

At your request, a letter for your employer is available from the sheriff that outlines the above fees. You may also be reimbursed for some expenses, such as childcare. The sheriff will let you know what expenses will be reimbursed. Be sure to keep all your receipts.

 

[SilvrT]

IMHO, while participation as a juror is a civic duty and is also a legal obligation, one should not suffer financially because of that.

 

[BlueSky]

Creating a financial hardship for you is good enough to get excused where I live. I got excused many times when I was working contract because I would have to fly home from the job and would not get paid when I didn't work. City, State, and Federal workers make up a large percentage of jurors I would suspect because they would still get paid. I was called earlier this year and I was eager to serve but the trial got delayed and all of us went home except for a few who got selected for Grand Jury duty. Now that I am 71 I can get excused because of my age if I want to. But, I don't want to. I think the juries need some level headed retired engineer.

[Eck]

Hear say has it that in Huntsville, Al., all you have to do is tell them you are an engineer and they will not select you. They don't want engineers on the Jury panel because they say the engineers think to much..

[cowpuc]

Hear say also has it that if you are a felon or been declared a little touched - missing a few cards from the deck - not the sharpest nail in pouch - elevator dont go all the up or for any other reason instability can be proven - you walk.. While I am certainly no felon, I think the next time I get one of those job applications in the mail I will just print out a couple weeks of "The Water Hole" and send it in with my app so the courts know what kind of family I belong to.

[SilvrT]

Hear say has it that in Huntsville, Al., all you have to do is tell them you are an engineer and they will not select you. They don't want engineers on the Jury panel because they say the engineers think to much..

 

I think this part belongs in the Jokes and Humor section LOL

[Huggy]

Being a witness pays better! I got a full days pay from the courts, was only there 1 hour, never had to testify, got a free lunch, full BBQ Chicken meal of my choice, in the restaurant across the street from the court house. also the company I worked for paid me for the day. Made out like a bandit.

[Edbo]

I hear that if your the one on trial you get three meals a day and they put you up for the night in place that no one can bother you . Just saying:smile11: