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nettiespaghetti
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05 Jun 2008, 5:07 pm

I just received a summons for jury duty. I'm a nervous wreck. I know sometimes you don't end up having to go, but not only am I going to have to explain to my place of employment and miss that pay (I know the court pay you something, but it's not much) and then I worry because I've never been there, so I'm going to have to somehow find a babysitter for my son, drive around looking for this place, go into this courthouse in the capital of Michigan so it's probably huge, find my way around.... I don't like this at all :( I almost wonder if I could tell the doctor it's causing me mental duress and get out of it, but that doesn't seem right. I guess I should do my civic duty :(


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krex
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05 Jun 2008, 5:24 pm

No you don't have to...you can find your own ways of contributing to society. Ask your DR for an "excuse" . If you are AS...either side may rule you out anyway, but you would have to go through all the court dates anyway while they pick the people who they think will vote for their side. If you already pay your taxs and vote...you are already doing your civic duty.


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05 Jun 2008, 5:24 pm

I can sympathise as I've been summonsed
a couple of times.The first time I didn't get
called for the jury itself but still had to sit
through a lot of cases.The second time my
number didn't come up so I was excused
attendance altogether.
If it's any consolation,most other people who
have been summonsed along with you will probably be in much the same boat.If you do have to go you should find that at least the fellow jurors and court officials will be supportive even if it's potentially a bit of an ordeal. If it's really difficult with finding a
babysitter as well then you could always try
asking to be excused,it shouldn't really be held against you.Good luck !


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2ukenkerl
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05 Jun 2008, 6:51 pm

nettiespaghetti wrote:
I just received a summons for jury duty. I'm a nervous wreck. I know sometimes you don't end up having to go


You probably ALWAYS have to go, UNLESS....

nettiespaghetti wrote:
, but not only am I going to have to explain to my place of employment and miss that pay


Well then TELL THEM! They may take that as a hardship, and rescind the request!

nettiespaghetti wrote:
(I know the court pay you something, but it's not much)


On average, they pay you enough to get there, IF it is within about 15 miles! It is about enough for a SMALL meal at Mcdonalds! So they REALLY don't pay you. It is like a partial reimbursement of your expenses.

nettiespaghetti wrote:
and then I worry because I've never been there, so I'm going to have to somehow find a babysitter for my son,


TELL THEM! They may let you off!

nettiespaghetti wrote:
drive around looking for this place, go into this courthouse in the capital of Michigan so it's probably huge, find my way around.... I don't like this at all :( I almost wonder if I could tell the doctor it's causing me mental duress and get out of it, but that doesn't seem right.


If you are AS, let them know, and tell them this is BAD for you!

nettiespaghetti wrote:
I guess I should do my civic duty :(


Gee, ADMIRABLE goal, but your voice will be like one of twelve, and the lawyers may reject you anyway.

BTW I was called to jury duty 5 times by California. The first 4 times, they accepted my financial hardship excuse. The fifth time, they DID say they wouldn't accept it anymore, but I wrote back saying I was residing in a different state, as I moved, and they dropped it.



05 Jun 2008, 7:23 pm

I would probably get out of it if I said I have a short attention span and I can't listen for long periods of time because I tend to zone out and plus all the blah blah blah overwhelms my brain so that's why I tend to zone out and the fact I have troubles with note taking. I do not know what is important. Maybe if I had a tape recorder then that be cool. Then they can't excuse me lol.



nettiespaghetti
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06 Jun 2008, 2:49 pm

My husband got called for duty just a month before I did and he told them that it was a major hardship for us because of our son (yada yada yada) and all they did was postpone it until July. Like yeah that really helped alot.... Now we both have to go, how crappy. But who knows, I'm thinking on trying to get a doctors excuse.


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06 Jun 2008, 2:58 pm

2ukenkerl wrote:
Gee, ADMIRABLE goal, but your voice will be like one of twelve, and the lawyers may reject you anyway.


I don't like this attitude at all. All it takes is one person to sway the minds of others, particularly with an observation that may have been missed.



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06 Jun 2008, 3:11 pm

I hope that I never get called for jury duty.


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06 Jun 2008, 3:16 pm

nettiespaghetti wrote:
I just received a summons for jury duty. I'm a nervous wreck. I know sometimes you don't end up having to go, but not only am I going to have to explain to my place of employment and miss that pay (I know the court pay you something, but it's not much) and then I worry because I've never been there, so I'm going to have to somehow find a babysitter for my son, drive around looking for this place, go into this courthouse in the capital of Michigan so it's probably huge, find my way around.... I don't like this at all :( I almost wonder if I could tell the doctor it's causing me mental duress and get out of it, but that doesn't seem right. I guess I should do my civic duty :(

Don't worry about it, they get alot of people that they have to choose from, I have been called up 5 or 6 times. I has always come up with an excuse for not being able to attend, such as prior obligations or illness in the family, school exams, which most of the time was true, since I was getting called in the same weeks, I was taking them, that happened 2 times.



2ukenkerl
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06 Jun 2008, 6:18 pm

ssenkrad wrote:
2ukenkerl wrote:
Gee, ADMIRABLE goal, but your voice will be like one of twelve, and the lawyers may reject you anyway.


I don't like this attitude at all. All it takes is one person to sway the minds of others, particularly with an observation that may have been missed.


OK, so you don't like the attitude! This is a HARDSHIP! If it ISN'T a hardship, you probably shouldn't be on the jury!! !! !! ! I would be ALL for being on the jury IF they did something to ensure you could keep your job, know how your job was going, and PAY YOU perhaps $1000/month! That is only POVERTY WAGE, but is still a HELP!

The idea that police are paid Over $3333/month and lawyers are paid $250+/hour, and they often FOUL THINGS UP, etc..., and some poor smuck comes in to try to validate it and gets paid $150 a MONTH(Got that? The juror gets paid, for ONE MONTH, what the lawyer gets paid for less than ONE HOUR!), is what I don't like!



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18 Dec 2009, 11:12 am

I decided to bump up this old topic to see what everyone thinks of my current situation. I just got called for grand jury duty. Meaning I have to go 3-5 days a week for at least an entire month (it could be more if I end up on a long case). I really wouldn't have minded regular jury duty, but this sounds like way too much. I tried getting out of it because I go to school full time all year around and work part time, but the person I talked with from the court just kept telling me it wasn't "their problem". Because I'm considered a part time worker (even though I can work 30-39 hours a week), I wouldn't get a dime from my employer for missing work. Still, the government doesn't give a crap. My options would be to stop working all that time, fit school in where I normally work, and hope my employer is fine with that (I work nights) or drop out of school for a month and hope I don't get stuck in court longer because after 29 days I'm booted out of school for good. So I guess my question is, is AS an excuse the courts would take? I haven't been officially diagnosed, but that's something I'd do if it would get me out of this torture.



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18 Dec 2009, 1:26 pm

Jury duty is an interesting thing. It was originally put in place to keep government in line, and I will explain how that was meant to be.

Jury's are given the right of what is known as "jury nullification". What this means is, the jury can decide if a person broke a law or not REGARDLESS if the law is a legal one or not. This means that if the government had an extremely unfair law, that most citizens disagreed with, the jury could get people off the hook, and the law itself would be meaningless. Of course, this can be done for any law from how I understand jury nullification.

It used to be required for either the judge or the lawyer to inform the jury of their right of jury nullification and what it meant. This practice is rare now, and some (most?) cases you get lied to or not informed about it at all.

It seems the court does not appreciate somebody's knowledge of jury nullification. Asking the right questions or saying the right things in relation to jury nullification can get you off the hook from jury duty.

Missing out on jury duty or not, I believe everyone should understand what jury nullification of the law is, and why they should practice it when they are on jury duty.


For those interested in something more detailed about jury nullification, here is an article by Russ Emal: http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig10/emal1.1.1.html


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18 Dec 2009, 2:25 pm

I received a summons a few months ago. I've gotten summoned before, but was always able to use the excuse of being a nursing mom or the caregiver of someone with a disability.

This time, I felt very nervous about the whole thing, but decided to be positive about it and think of it as a special day. I drive, but only in certain places, so I planned out the bus routes I would take. I went shopping for things to put in a packed lunch, and did my best to be prepared. I was going to do a practice run to see how long the trip took, including walking to and from bus stops. Mostly I was nervous about the change in routine, and having to get all of that planning right. I wasn't too worried about the actual in-court stuff, because I figured they'd let us all know what to do.

The way they do it in CA is they tell you what date they want you, but not what time. The night before your report date, you are supposed to call or visit the website for further instructions. That was difficult, because I couldn't know what time to catch the bus.

Well, in the end, rain was in the forecast, so my husband agreed to drive me to the courthouse. We spent all day wondering what time I'd have to go, and if it would interfere with getting the kids to school. When I was finally able to check and see what time to go in, it said, "No jurors are needed for 8:30 roll call. Check back at 11:00." So at 11:00, I checked back. It said, "No jurors are needed for the rest of the day. Your jury service has been fulfilled." Or something like that. So, after all that, I didn't even have to leave my house!

On the one hand, it was a relief to be able to have a normal day after that point. On the other hand, I had spent an entire month psyching myself up for it, and, in some ways, was looking forward to the actual courtroom experience. That, to me, sounds interesting. I'm sure they deal with all kinds of jurors, and I wouldn't be the only one who is a bit confused and overwhelmed. All the pre-trial uncertainty was really hard on me, though. Knowing that I would have to be at the courthouse at some time, but not knowing exactly when, and not knowing how long it takes to walk from the bus stop. Wondering if riding the bus has changed much since I was a teenager riding. Wondering if there would be gluten-free food to eat in the courthouse, and trying to remember to carry change for vending machines. I even tried posting about my worries here on WP, but never actually submitted anything I wrote.



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21 Dec 2009, 12:26 pm

I work in the county clerk's office, and here, there are a few steps to jury duty. First, a questionaire is sent out, one of the questions specifically asks if you are "physically and mentally capable" of serving on a jury. If you answer no, you have to explain, and it is up to the jury board a to wether they accept your explanation. After this step, potential jurors are selected, and placed in a pool to end up placed on one of two jury lists (one for each judge that typically uses a jury). Jurys here serve a term of a couple months, with trials typically only on Mondays and Tuesday. If you are a noshow, our judges do issue bench warrants. As far as reporting, you call the night before. Normally, you can call Friday evening for Monday jury duty, nothing gets added that requires a jury over the weekend, though occasionally (very rare) parties reach an agreement, and the case is off.



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21 Dec 2009, 2:09 pm

Why is it that every jury summons is met with the question, "how do I get out of it?"

Jury duty is not without its sacrifices; and not without its challenges for people with ASDs. But it is part of a citizen's responsibilities that should not be lightly shrugged off. To my mind, serving on juries is a responsibility that every citizen must be prepared to undertake when called upon to do so.

There are, of course, situations where a person is incapable of doing so, or where doing so would cause unreasonable harm to the person or to others. But these cases should be the exception, not the rule. That's not to say that some people with AS might fall within the class of persons form whom jury duty would cause unreasonable hardship, but I think it does a disservice to those who have a genuine incapacity for those of us who would merely be inconvenienced to seek to elevate the scale of hardship we would suffer in an attempt to avoid that inconvenience.

All of that being said, I think it would be a very interesting challenge for counsel and for the Court to evaluate the suitability of a potential juror with an Autism spectrum disorder. Given our usual difficulty with non-verbal cues, how well can we evaluate credibility? If testimony is contradictory, whose version does one believe, if they are both consistent with the the physical evidence? I think that makes an Aspie juror a bit of a crap shoot for a litigator, one which many would, I think, prefer to avoid.


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21 Dec 2009, 2:51 pm

visagrunt wrote:
Why is it that every jury summons is met with the question, "how do I get out of it?"


Maybe because it's not worth the hassle. :lol:

I did jury duty twice in my life. The first time, I had to spend HOURS sitting in a room and I wasn't put on a jury, so that one day was it.

The second time I was put on a grand jury list for a year, but never got called to come in. I credit that one to having a law degree. Attorneys seem to like their jurists dumb about the law when it comes to the jury selection.

If your boss pays you for being on a jury panel, it's a worthwhile experience. Many employers do not, and you might even lose your job because of it (temp agencies). If you have other daily obligations (e.g. family, children) the imposition of this "civic duty" (which I debate really isn't a duty) become unreasonable.

I am no longer registered to vote (for my own personal reasons), so I will never have this issue again in my life.