1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Need advice: Jury Duty category

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by Killick, Mar 18, 2010.

  1. KYSportsWriter

    KYSportsWriter Well-Known Member

    Touche.

    Bastard.
     
  2. EStreetJoe

    EStreetJoe Well-Known Member

    If you want to get out of it if you're called to serve, depends on what kind of case it is:

    - If it's a criminal case just say "I firmly believe that the prosecution wouldn't be bringing this case unless there was enough evidence to prove the defendant guilty, so he/she must be guilty"

    - If it's a civil case just say "I'm going to find for the plaintiff just to stick it to the defendant's insurance company who will pay whatever sum we award"
     
  3. apeman33

    apeman33 Well-Known Member

    Actually, the last time I got called for jury duty, my case was pretty much: "Um, right now I'm the interim managing editor of the paper. This means that because of the stories my reporters have been filing on the case, I already know just about everything that's out there and based on those reports, I've already made a judgment. I think he's guilty and I don't think anyone will be able to present me with evidence that will convince me otherwise."

    Yeah, I was at the courthouse a total of less than 10 minutes.
     
  4. Killick

    Killick Well-Known Member

    UPDATE: Okay, so about a month into it and I've served on two juries already. Today, I was on a jury for a case that wrapped by the end of the day. But, DEAR GOD, it was painful. Quick summary: Chick wanted to open a high-end lingerie store in Vegas. She engaged a branding company to come up with a name and logo, an architecture firm to design the store — from signage to furniture, lock stock and barrel. They give her estimates up front, and she okays it. A month or two into it, she has not landed a single investor as she thought she would, gets invoices from the companies and pretty much ignores them while still working with them on the designs. By the time they cut her off, her tab's up to about $50,000.

    Now, she has yet to pay a dime. They sue her for payment. Her defense is, "I think they're overcharging me, and I don't have the money... so there. I agree I owe them something but not this much."

    Of course, she never told them to stop. She didn't say a thing while they were sending her invoices with itemized charges.

    Ugh. To top it all off, her lawyer (hey, good luck getting your fee, pal) is a newb. This is his second trial. To say he was repetitive and in over his head would be an understatement. Excuses ran the gamut from family emergency (her kid fell and hit his head... rendering her unable to pay a dime for more than two years?) to "it was the economy's fault" (this all happened in 2007) to "she thought she was signing contracts for her LLC, not personally" (so, the plaintiffs should bear the burden because she screwed up?)

    Anyway, at the outset, the judge estimates we should be done by lunch.

    It took all friggin' day.

    And chick acts stunned that we awarded the plaintiffs the full amount.

    God, I've got two more months of this shit to go. Kill me now.
     
  5. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    I just got done with three days of jury duty (a day of jury selection, plus less than two days of trial, including our deliberation). It was a civil case. The biggest waste of time on earth. It involved a nun leaving a church and a thug on a motorcycle (without a license) riding on the sidewalk. The cherry on top was that the only witness was a half-blind, hard-of-hearing, 70+-year-old priest, who was watching from across the street, because the incident took place in a slum and he was outside to make sure the nun got out of there safely. Although with him on watch, a spaceship full of martians could have swooped down and kidnapped her and he probably wouldn't have noticed.

    You can probably guess the rest somewhat accurately, and where their stories differed. The guy on the motorcycle was suing the nun.

    I won't recount all of the details, other than to say that the defense attorney introduced a weapons felony conviction for the plaintiff last year, and the guy sat on the stand and said he didn't recall being arrested, didn't recall pleading guilty, didn't recall an arraignment and had no memory of the whole thing ever happening. The judge in the case was taken by surprise. She was like, "Are you sure you want to testify that way?" At first I was actually pissed off that it was allowed into evidence, because it really had no bearing on this case (but apparently is OK because it goes toward his credibility overall). But then I just wanted to yell at the guy, "Come clean. Your credibility looks worse when you deny the arrest report and the paper he is showing us with your conviction."

    Then, while the plaintiff's attorney was making his summation, I caught the eye of the court officer, who was this balook with a set of handcuffs, and he was making a face like, "Can you believe this shit?" It cracked me up (and probably would have gotten him into trouble if I had brought it to the judge).

    The plaintiff's attorney cracked me up, too, because he wasn't the stereotypical ambulance chaser type (at least the guy in my head), oozing slime and whom you can't stand just by looking at him. But him and his ill-fitting suit and his beaten-down demeanor cracked me up. He had a tubbier Ray Romano look and voice and I just looked at him and saw the thought bubble over his head saying, "This isn't the kind of shit I thought I'd be doing with my life when I was in law school. What went wrong?" He seemed resigned to the fact that this sucked for everyone, including him and his really bad set of facts.

    Overall, I'd say this was a giant waste of time and our civil court system pissed me off more than it already did. But I think we decided fairly, so I will sleep OK tonight.
     
  6. crusoes

    crusoes Active Member

    Exactly.
     
  7. Word.

    If you don't serve, they'll end up with some (other) unemployed, slacked-jawed simpleton in your place.
     
  8. JR

    JR Well-Known Member

    My brother was a jury member of a very high profile murder case up here about twenty years ago. Went on for about six weeks.

    Laws are different up here. You cannot EVER talk about details of the jury room.

    He still won't talk about it.
     
  9. BB Bobcat

    BB Bobcat Active Member

    Just don't get yourself thrown in jail for contempt. I'm sure people say all sorts of stuff every day to intentionally get excused, and the judges are probably on the lookout for it. I keep imagining some smart ass going in and saying "I can pick out guilty people just by looking at them!" And the judge says: "Funny guy, huh? Go to jail." Maybe they wouldn't really throw in jail, but maybe they could fine you or at least give you a verbal tongue lashing in front of everyone.

    If you really don't want to serve (and I actually wouldn't mind it), just make sure to emphasize the things that are true about you that might be an excuse. Do you have friends who are lawyers, or are in law-enforcement? Have you written crime stories? Do you like to watch courtroom shows on TV?

    Good luck.
     
  10. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    Here you can't while the trial is going on. After the trial, you're free to write a book about it, if you want. One of the cool things was on the way out of the courthouse, I saw the defense attorney and we had a 15 minute conversation about the case. I told him what happened with the jury and he filled in the missing pieces of the case and answered some questions I had.
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page