here is a question.

More info please. Are you charged with somethng, the plaintif, the accused, What?
 
Even if you are a good law biding citizen your whole life...the legal system will somehow involve you like it or not. Price of living in a free country.

I had to go to a class for DUI in 2005. In the class was this one woman. The reason she was in the class? A few weeks prior, she was getting her hair done. Someone hit her parked car. The officer wanted to breathalyze her, she refused, and was arrested. No fair, right? Where was the D in her DUI?

So more details, please.
 
I went in for jury duty last week. Not my first time mind you, and I've been on panels, as well as been excused after the requisite day to be part of the process. In L.A. County, they have a one-day-one-trial policy. When they need you, you have one day to get on a panel. If you don't, they consider your service completed and you go about your business. If you get on a panel that day, and the trial lasts for 2 days, you've also completed your service. You're not required to fullfil the 10 days' of service you're obligated to.

What I didn't like was NOT being called for anything. I sat around all day, and it was for nothing. I would much rather have been called for a panel, got to hang out a few days and do some good for a trial that might normally have a bunch of people on a jury who really don't want to be there.

Believe me, if you're ever a defendant or plaintiff, you'll want jurors there who care enough to weigh the facts.

Anyway, while it's very amusing to want to make yourself unattractive to the attornies during jury selection, don't get too cute. You can be charged with contempt (see paragraph above.)

Bermuda
 
I hope it's not too bad.

I'm quite glad that I'm ineligible!

Just be thankful that we live in a country where we have trial by jury rather than other (more corruptible) methods.
 
Even if you are a good law biding citizen your whole life...the legal system will somehow involve you like it or not. Price of living in a free country.

I had to go to a class for DUI in 2005. In the class was this one woman. The reason she was in the class? A few weeks prior, she was getting her hair done. Someone hit her parked car. The officer wanted to breathalyze her, she refused, and was arrested. No fair, right? Where was the D in her DUI?

So more details, please.

To be fair, you can't exactly just say "ok, we'll let you off if you don't want to do a breathalyser test". otherwise everyone would do it. Anyway, you're lucky you can just get off on a class.

I went in for jury duty last week. Not my first time mind you, and I've been on panels, as well as been excused after the requisite day to be part of the process. In L.A. County, they have a one-day-one-trial policy. When they need you, you have one day to get on a panel. If you don't, they consider your service completed and you go about your business. If you get on a panel that day, and the trial lasts for 2 days, you've also completed your service. You're not required to fullfil the 10 days' of service you're obligated to.

What I didn't like was NOT being called for anything. I sat around all day, and it was for nothing. I would much rather have been called for a panel, got to hang out a few days and do some good for a trial that might normally have a bunch of people on a jury who really don't want to be there.

Believe me, if you're ever a defendant or plaintiff, you'll want jurors there who care enough to weigh the facts.

Anyway, while it's very amusing to want to make yourself unattractive to the attornies during jury selection, don't get too cute. You can be charged with contempt (see paragraph above.)

Bermuda

I'm not going to get myself charged with contempt of court. I just figured I'd say some things like "bring back hanging" etc... they can't exactly charge you for having an opinion.

I hope it's not too bad.

I'm quite glad that I'm ineligible!

Just be thankful that we live in a country where we have trial by jury rather than other (more corruptible) methods.

Lucky you for being inelegable. I'm going to make myself inelegable from now on, that's for sure. TBH I think trial by jury is pretty outdated. I'd rather have my guilt determined by qualified professionals than 12 members of joe public who have their opinions informed by the SUN and would much rather not be there.
 
Lucky you for being inelegable. I'm going to make myself inelegable from now on, that's for sure. TBH I think trial by jury is pretty outdated. I'd rather have my guilt determined by qualified professionals than 12 members of joe public who have their opinions informed by the SUN and would much rather not be there.

Are your opinions informed by the Sun? I assume not so perhaps you do have an important role to play on a jury.

As to jury trial: that is 'the lamp that shows that freedom lives'. 'Qualified professionals' are typically white, middle-aged and middle class and are poor arbiters of justice: you only have to look at the system of magistrates to realise the risks of doing away with jury trials. But then I suspect that you believe you will never have to face a criminal charge in court and if you ever did you are confident that you would not be discrimnated against by those in a postion to judge you.
 
It's always surprised me that I've never been called (touch wood). Now that I'm a carer I suspect I could be excused.

Still, I paid my dues - I worked in legalistic areas for years and I'm over it. I avoid the legal system like the plague.

Good luck Eddie. What you don't want is a long trial. For me that would be like being caged.
 
Are your opinions informed by the Sun? I assume not so perhaps you do have an important role to play on a jury.

As to jury trial: that is 'the lamp that shows that freedom lives'. 'Qualified professionals' are typically white, middle-aged and middle class and are poor arbiters of justice: you only have to look at the system of magistrates to realise the risks of doing away with jury trials. But then I suspect that you believe you will never have to face a criminal charge in court and if you ever did you are confident that you would not be discrimnated against by those in a postion to judge you.

Yes, qualified professionals may typically be white middle aged and middle class, but then again, so are most jurors. They generally represent the population. At the end of the day, legal professionals are paid to not be discriminatory. What makes you so sure that any normal member of the public is not going to be discriminatory? Honestly, you read any article on Yahoo! news about crime and the comments are almost all discriminatory in some way. Also, what if we're talking about a high profile case, one that is portrayed widley in the media? How can you possibly get a jury together that has not seen the story in the news and had their views altered by that in some way? I don't think a jury makes the process any less discriminatory.
 
What makes you so sure that any normal member of the public is not going to be discriminatory? Honestly, you read any article on Yahoo! news about crime and the comments are almost all discriminatory in some way. Also, what if we're talking about a high profile case, one that is portrayed widley in the media? How can you possibly get a jury together that has not seen the story in the news and had their views altered by that in some way? I don't think a jury makes the process any less discriminatory.

There ya go. The thoughts of a drummer. An intelligent, reasonable, honest guy like you is exactly what the defence would want.

They sure don't want Ma and Pa Kettle of the local loony right wing fundamentalist group who rings radio shock jocks to complain about refugees and young people today..
 
I'm just going to play Devil's Advocate for a minute here.

In no way am I advocating extremist ideologies here, but. Surely part of the idea of a jury is that all segments of the population can be represented? It's the same with the electoral system - the right and left-wing extremists can vote and should be allowed to in a free society provided that they're not breaking the law in doing so (i.e. intimidatory tactics, vote-rigging, etc) in the same way that the extremist parties (that are perceptively on the far-right in the UK) should be allowed to exist to represent those views.

Hopefully with an educated population those kinds of views won't get much of a hearing if the majority of the population does vote in a way that is 'sensible' (although who am I to decide that?).

The same goes for a jury. Judges don't often accept split decisions so you would hope that the 'nutters' in the jury panel wouldn't hold the kind of influence. In fact, the quickest way to provide a decision in a jury in to actually analyse the facts of the case and provide a verdict, rather than all just going along with one 'nutter's' view. There aren't as many extremists in the UK as the Internet and papers make us believe and te vast majority of people are somewhere in the middle - it's just they never get reported because they are the 'normal' population.
 
Eddie - you miss the point. YOU ARE THE PUBLIC! That is why you are asked to serve on a jury. It is the diversity of the jury that is its strength. There will be bigots and ill-informed idiots on the jury you serve on. And you will be there to balance their views.
 
As always, George Carlin has the game worked out:
Some people try to get out of jury duty by lying. You don't have to lie. Tell the judge the truth. Tell him you'd make a terrific juror because you can spot guilty people ... [snaps fingers] ... Just like that!
Hey Abe, that's a pointy point you make!
 
I was on a jury once.

Imagine yourself on the other side of the table, facing a jury of your peers who were not smart enough to get out of jury duty. Wouldn't that be fun?
 
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