Thread 33692318

I was summoned to jury duty. I have a cursory understanding of what that is, but don't know how exactly it goes, or what I even NEED to know to do it. I imagine it can't be too complicated but it's stressing me out. I know very little, to nothing about law. I wasn't taught about this. The jury selection process is days from now.

Voir Dire sounds stressful to me. I'm somewhere between "it's not a big deal" and wanting to kms.

Anyone else been through jury duty?

>>33692318 (OP)
I was summoned for jury duty twice. The first time I didn't go and they didn't send any letters after the initial one. The second time I just didn't show up and they must have sent 3 more letters reminding me of jury duty and I just didn't go.

If you get a little crazy I heard they won’t even pick you. It’s like a life hack.

>>33692465
That will take some amount of courage. I worry I'll be too promising and they won't dismiss me.
>>33692415
I don't really want to take the risk.

>>33692318 (OP)
Maybe it works different in your country vs mine but I was summoned once.

>Showed up at shit AM half asleep at the court, along with like 200 people.
>Hours-long explanation about the court case, and how if we feel we're not qualified on the on the juror or have any biases or have any other reason for wanting to be excused from potentially being on the juror we can fill out a form
>fill out the form
>break for lunch
>Go to McDs
>forget to ask for receipt to get reimbursed
>have a massive shit way past lunch time in the justice building's fancy toilets
>get back to the court room
>the bailiff is calling people by name who said they wanted to be exempt so they can explain themselves
>guess they called my name while I was shitting
>hours more of this
>what was 200+ people is now barely
>It's now late afternoon
>final names are called, those are the jury
>everyone else, including me, are free to leave

never had jury duty summons again

>>33692537
What country are you from? That sounds different from the US, where I am. In the US it's under 20 people that get selected, I think 17 at most, MAYBE, and a portion of them are dismissed in the process of jury selection, and presumably, the jury comes at a later point.

>>33692318 (OP)
The whole of having a jury is that they are *not* legal experts; they're normal, ordinary people. As a juror, you have nothing whatever to do with questions of law - that's the judge's job. The jury deals with questions of *fact*. You will have to listen to several different witnesses being questioned, and then decide A: What do you think happened? and (in a criminal case) also B: how sure are you about that?

After you've listened to all the evidence, the judge will sum it up for you, and he will also give you instructions along the lines of "If you think X happened, your verdict should be 'guilty'; if you think Y happened or you're not sure, the verdict should be 'not guilty'". And you then go away and discuss with your fellow jurors what you think happened and try to agree on a verdict.

There are some quite strict rules, but these will all be explained to you. For example you cannot base your decision on ANYTHING except what you hear in the courtroom: if you start researching the case on the Internet by yourself, or discussing it with people who aren't on the jury, that's a serious offence. But all of this stuff will be explained to you.

If there's some reason why you think you can't serve as a juror, or can't serve on this particular case, you will be given the chance to say so. But you might well find it interesting.

>>33692841
Thanks. Part of me has wanted to do it just for the experience. I'm 20, haven't done much in my life, and I think it would be a little step into adulthood that I've yet to experience. Part of me just worries because I must have some kind of autism like problem and at times it gets to me so strongly it stunts me.

>>33692318 (OP)
Remember, if the person committed a non-crime like tax evasion, it's your duty as a human being to refuse to convict.

>>33692318 (OP)
It goes like this 99% of the time:
>Sit around for an hour or two in a lobby
>Get herded into a room with the other potential jurors
>Sit around for another hour or two
>Don't get selected
>Collect your money for sitting around for some hours
>Go home
Alternate ending:
>After sitting around, you get selected
>Get herded to the court room
>Get questioned by attorneys on both sides for an hour, pretty good chance of being dismissed OR tell them you're unable to attend due to obligations, go home
>Even if you're selected, fair chance the case is dismissed due to technicalities and/or judge just doesn't wanna be there
>Go home
It's nothing to worry about.

>>33692318 (OP)
All you're expected to do if you do get selected is weigh what evidence and testimony is more convincing based on your own common sense and experience. You're not expected to know the law. That's the judge's job, and if you do need to know the law the judge will explain it to you. If its a civil matter you are just there to figure out which side you think is lying, and if its a criminal matter you are just there to answer whether the prosecution convinced you the defendant did it.

As for voir dire just answer the questions honestly. There is nothing to stress about. If they ask an embarassing question you can ask the judge if you can answer it privately in front of just the judge and lawyers, instead of in front of everyone.

I wish I could be on a jury, but I was neber selected. Now I'm a lawyer so I definitely will never be selected. You genuinely have nothing to stress about.

>>33692617
like any other country has the "jury duty", what even is that ? you get to decide instead of a judge ?

>>33693197
Instead of having one guy (the judge) deciding your fate, you get to many people (the jury) vote to decide your fate.

>>33693097
>>33693122
Thanks. Maybe I'm overthinking it anyways. There's a voice in me that harrasses me when it comes to these things and jins up an almost nausiating anxiety. I woke up this morning and didn't even want to get out of bed to see the next day because I know this is coming.
>>33693197
I don't know what you are saying in the first half of that post but to answer your question, I don't know exactly, I just know it's a way of giving the American people a role in the outcome. Allegedly the jury does decide the outcome in most cases, but I don't really know.

>>33692617
Canada. I'm also in a major city so probably it's on a smaller scale in smaller towns.

>>33693097
Exactly this.

>>33692318 (OP)
You should definitely watch the show Jury Duty. Slightly related and hilarious..

>>33693232
Don't worry so much anon, try to distract yourself with things in the meanwhile. Good luck and take care.