Jury Duty

[_Soso]

I received summons for Jury Duty. Due to report next week. In the event my attendance is required, any advice or suggestions?

I would advise against wearing your Klan regalia in the courtroom.

[_subgenius]

I received summons for Jury Duty. Due to report next week. In the event my attendance is required, any advice or suggestions?

I would advise against wearing your Klan regalia in the courtroom.

i live in the south...do you really think anyone would be offended?...besides there is a good chance i would be seated with fellow members, right?

[_ajax18]

I would advise against wearing your Klan regalia in the courtroom.

You can't negotiate with the Tea Party because they're so radical, yet people like Soso equate being Republican with the KuKluxKlan. And yet people like Beastie would still claim that it's entirely the Republicans fault in her unbiased opinion.

[_cinepro]

I received summons for Jury Duty. Due to report next week. In the event my attendance is required, any advice or suggestions?

Don't overestimate the intelligence of your fellow jurors (or their ability to overrule the obvious with their biases).

I sat on a jury 10 years ago for a personal injury case where a poor husband and wife had been rear-ended by someone which resulted in very minor damage. The person admitted fault, the insurance company paid the claim, but then a neighbor of the couple recommended they travel across town to see a certain doctor, which resulted in months of "therapy" and claims of severe injury and trauma. This was too much for the insurance company, so here we were three years later in a court room.

To make a long story short, the trial was a disaster for the couple's attorney. The insurance company had multiple expert witnesses (ER doctors, handwriting experts, auto engineering experts) that showed there was no way they suffered that much trauma from such a minor accident, and that the doctor they went to was grossly incompetent (and the handwriting expert showed how handwriting on the "logs" for their office visits suggested they had all been signed at the same time, not over months).

Anyway, we get into the deliberation and almost all of us think we're getting out of there by lunch time, but it turns out there are a few jurors who just hate insurance companies, and they want to stick it to 'em (even though they agree the couple probably wasn't hurt and probably didn't visit the doctor all those times). Eventually we got them to see that this wasn't an appropriate course of action for a juror, but it took two days.

[_Brackite]

Don't overestimate the intelligence of your fellow jurors (or their ability to overrule the obvious with their biases).

Even though I strongly believe that in the Jodi Arias Trial that Jodi Arias has been proven guilty of first degree murder beyond a reasonable doubt, I am still a bit worry that there with will a couple of jurors on that jury who will not want to convict her of first degree murder.

[_ajax18]

Even though I strongly believe that in the Jodi Arias Trial that Jodi Arias has been proven guilty of first degree murder beyond a reasonable doubt, I am still a bit worry that there with will a couple of jurors on that jury who will not want to convict her of first degree murder.

Casey Anthony got away with it. O.J. Simpson got away with it. I wonder how much money these endless days of court and testimony has cost us as taxpayers.

[_subgenius]

Even though I strongly believe that in the Jodi Arias Trial that Jodi Arias has been proven guilty of first degree murder beyond a reasonable doubt, I am still a bit worry that there with will a couple of jurors on that jury who will not want to convict her of first degree murder.

Casey Anthony got away with it. O.J. Simpson got away with it. I wonder how much money these endless days of court and testimony has cost us as taxpayers.

if it were not this case would it not be another...are courtrooms not always "open for business"? do they charge by the hour? is it a stipend?
I always hear about how much a trial costs, but have never been sure of how such a cost is determined...granted it is a function of the State, but is 10 days of the Jodi Arias trial more expensive than 10 days of traffic court? or 10 murder trials that only took 1 day each?

[_ajax18]

if it were not this case would it not be another...are courtrooms not always "open for business"? do they charge by the hour? is it a stipend?

Any time you have lawyers, judges, even jury members... anyone paid by the state on a trial that lasts a month as opposed to a day, it seems to me that it would have to cost the taxpayers a lot more money. I know it was the prosecution that kept her on the stand forever, but I had heard enough from her within a few hours. How much did this trial cost the taxpayer and what did we get in return for it?

I'm just not sure jury trials or even the entire US court system provides a level of justice that justifies the cost. I can see advantages to an inquisitorial system vs. an adversarial system.

[_Brackite]

but is 10 days of the Jodi Arias trial more expensive than 10 days of traffic court?

The Jodi Arias trial has been lasting a lot longer than 10 days.

Jodi Arias: 15 days on the stand... and counting

[_Brackite]

I wonder how much money these endless days of court and testimony has cost us as taxpayers.

Taxpayers fork over $800K+ for Arias' defense!