Asklemmy

Me and two friends were coincidentally summoned at the same time - 3 different counties across two states. Mine and one of my friend's summons were cancelled, and my other friend just got sent home yesterday from a case as he wasn't needed. But the position has tenure for 3-4 months so we might have to go back.

My first summons was when I was 18 ..I ditched it.. paid the fine. Back the it was 80 bucks. The next time some 30 years later I went. It was in San Diego superior and there were hundreds of other people in a huge hall and they were calling names. I tried my best to be invisible but my name came up. Next thing I know is everyone in the nury thinks I'd make a good foreman... Despite my objections that's what they wanted. Ended up being a slip and fall case for a lady in a restaurant. I fought like hell to get her more compensation and w eventually reached a compromise. I got her a better settlement and wow what a cool experience.

I think its $12/hr compensation, and fuel only gets reimbursed if you gotta drive for more than an hour to show up. I got my letter on my desk, but its for an undetermined date in july

I was selected 3 times and sat on juries for murder cases each time. Guilty, not guilty, and guilty. Last time was 2017. It was worthwhile thing to do even if it was inconvenient.

how much are you paid?

I don't remember exactly, but I remember feeling insulted by the stipend because I spent more on parking in downtown Detroit and had no means of transportation into the city other than driving myself. I had such a hard time finding cheap parking spots within reasonable walking distance of the court.

I've been summoned a couple times. Was paid $12 for not being selected to the jury. I think you're off the roster for awhile? They were about a decade apart.

Was summoned once, and ended up on the jury. It was a really sad case where the cops were trying to put an 80-something year old former convict back in prison, because his son in law had a gun in the house (that they searched because of something the son in law did, but no charges were brought against him), and that was a violation of the 80-year-old's release conditions from like 40 years ago.

I really wanted to end up on the jury in order to keep this guy out of prison, which luckily we did. The defense was very smart in making his case sympathetic, even though legally the guy had no leg to stand on. There were a few jurors that wanted to imprison him, but we finally got them to go with the majority to ignore the law and keep him out of prison.

The easy rule of thumb if you do/don't want to be on the jury: the less you talk, the more likely you are to end up on the jury. The more annoying you are, especially talking about how busy you are, or asking a lot of pointless questions: the less likely you are to end up on the jury.

I've never actually served, but the pay is like $2 an hour plus maybe parking in the US. How frequently you actually receive a jury duty summons depends on jurisdiction.

Don't try to get out of it. It's the most power you will ever get as a single citizen in the US. You can make the difference in someone else's life, and it may be a matter of life and death based on a law that you don't even think should exist. If you ever have a trial by jury, you don't want to be judged by a group of people who couldn't think of a good-enough excuse to get out of it, you want smart people who will potentially put their foot in the door between you and unjust laws.

Read up on jury nullification. Try to get on a jury. Don't tell them anything they don't ask directly. Dress like anything but who they think they don't want on their jury during the voir dire process.

I was summoned once, but no juries were selected that day. My younger brother was the foreperson of a grand jury.

I've been selected three times for jury duty. Two were county and one was federal. As far as pay went, county payed awful, it was less than minimum wage. Federal paid a bit better, and I got mileage to the courthouse, I also had to front the parking cost and be reimbursed later.

The first time I was on a criminal trial for rape of a mentally handicapped woman, I was kicked off that jury during selection. The second time I had to go in one day, but all the cases for the day ended up settling, so they sent us back home. The third time was a civil case for a prisoner who had his stuff destroyed by one of the guards, I was part of the jury and we couldn't reach a verdict because some people couldn't believe a guard would just do bad things.

Yeah I've been summoned a bunch of times (California). You get that at most 1x per year and usually you're not needed (you're excused over the phone, or you go to the courthouse and wait around most of the day before getting sent home). If you're sent from the waiting room to an actual courtroom, you're there with 50 or so other people who get called up and questioned ("voir dire") one by one til they have selected 12 jurors and 4 alternates. Anyone left over is sent home. Once I made it all the way into the questioning phase but then got excused. I haven't yet actually been on a jury. Anyway it's time consuming but not that hard. There's a small payment for those who need it. It's nowhere near minimum wage.

I've been summoned as a juror twice in >20 years of eligibility. They have a number you call when the date comes to see if you actually have to appear or not; the first time, I didn't have to go at all. The second time, I did have to appear; I sat in a waiting room with about 20 other people for an hour, then we were all told we could go home.

Overall, shitty experience.

I've served on two juries.

The first was for a traffic accident. The parties involved had already decided on the amount of money that was involved, we just had to decide the percentage of fault of each party.

The second was a criminal case in which two people broke into a restaurant and held employees prisoner to rob the restaurant. They were convicted.

I've been summoned twice since. The first time I went in and was excused. The second time I was told I didn't have to appear the night before.

Here in my county you have to fill out and submit a questionnaire. One of the questions is whether you can give a police officers testimony the same weight as any other person.

My response recently has been that I would believe a police officer less than any other person. My reasoning being that anyone who has been paying attention to current events and doesn't believe that all cops lie would be too stupid to serve on a jury.

I don't mind serving on a jury, but it's looking like answering the questions honestly means I won't be selected again.

I have been summoned many times and have never sat on a Jury.

I served on Grand Jury in NY state. 2 days a week for 8 weeks, listened to the evidence and decided if there was enough to charge/not charge. Really interesting experience.

Been selected many times, but they don't like engineers on juries.

I’ve been summoned once, picked never. Waited around for a few hours just to do nothing and get a small compensation check.

I once got summoned while I was in the hospital being treated for Leukemia. They gave me an exemption and some get well wishes.

I've been summoned twice in the past 7 years and neither time did I actually even get to the point where they interview to decide if I would have been a juror.

First time I got summons was like a month after I moved to a different city for work and I let them know and they said okay you don't need to come.

Second was like last year and I accepted the summons but then got a notification that I was no longer needed as the trial wouldn't happen. I assume plea deal or something.

My doctor sent them a note suggesting an anxious autistic man with anxiety disorders who's prone to panic attacks probably shouldn't be a juror. They excused me.

Not yet, but everyone I know that were summoned, total 3 instances, never actually served.

Canadian here. Got summoned a few years ago. I applied for excusal on account of my autism and lack of transport to get to the courthouse which was in another city.

I have diagnosis documents for proof if needed but they never asked me. My request was approved and I never had to go.

I'm 47, I've been summoned twice, but never selected to actually serve.

Truly embarrassing experience. One judge gave us a whole spiel about 'if you think this is hard, imagine how THE TROOPS FEEL'. The judge for the case I was on told a single mother of 3 that being out of work for 4 days was not a 'real hardship' that would exempt her. I was made to sit through a case that probably shouldn't have gone to trial. Basically, the primary witness and the defendant could have both been guilty of the crimes, and it seemed like something was being hidden from us. My job pays me a full rate for any time on jury duty. I don't remember the exact amount, but it was much less than I would have made going to work. You're basically coerced to get a quick verdict.

I got a summons during Covid, first summons I ever got, and haven’t gotten one since. I was in my mid 30s, I kind of wanted to go just to see it for myself at least once but I’m an organ transplant recipient and I felt it was too risky to be out and about during Covid so my transplant clinic wrote me an excuse note that it wasn’t medically appropriate for me to attend and I was excused.

I think you always go back into the pool regardless of the outcome of your summons.

Ive been summoned a few times but only picked once for a single day trial. I showed up at 8am and drank shitty coffee and ate snacks while watching HGTV on a big screen in the jury room. About 2 or 3 hours later the judge came in to tell us that the defendent had taken a plea deal, so we could go home. I got a check for $12 some weeks later and don't have to serve again for a year or two.

All in all not too bad, and my work paid me my full wage for the day for doing my civic duty.

The summons prior to that was for a grand jury, which I didnt realize at the time and also got the dates mixed up so I didnt actually show up. I really lucked out here because for the grand jury, you have to serve for two weeks straight. When I realized I had the days wrong I was able to call and get it sorted out which lead to the above summons in which I was called, but according to the law, I technically could have been thrown in jail over missing the summons.

I was summoned three times in a month, and then haven’t gotten another one since then. Normally the triple summons wouldn’t be possible, because each summons has an exemption for if you were recently summoned and got rejected during voir dire… But I was summoned first at the city level, then the county level, then the city level again. And the exemption didn’t apply at the city level.

Basically, the city summoned me. I showed up. And then the city went “oh actually, every single case we had scheduled today went to a plea bargain. So we’re not going to do voir dire, because we don’t have any cases. You can just go home.”

The next week, I had the county summon. I showed up, went through voir dire, and got rejected because I wasn’t afraid to talk. Fun fact, most of the time during voir dire, the people who get picked are the ones who just quietly sit there. Knowing more about you makes it more likely for one side or the other to reject you.

The third week, I got called back to the city court. Since we hadn’t done voir dire last time, the “if you were already summoned recently and got rejected” exemption didn’t apply. Because without voir dire, I was never actually rejected. So I had to go back to city court again, just to get rejected in voir dire.

I nearly missed rent that month. “But wait, your employer typically keeps paying you even when you’re at jury duty, right?” I was a freelancer at the time. And every single summons landed in the middle of a week-long gig. So I basically had to cancel those three gigs (for being forced to miss a single day), and didn’t work for almost three weeks. Which meant I was basically three weeks short on paychecks.

Gotten summons by mail twice. Both times I was way out of town, so no chance of attending, they let me off.

No, I don't live in either of those countries, so have never been called up there.

I was summoned last year. Didn't get selected for the jury but did still spend two days listening to the selection process and info on the case.

It was a sad one, DUI. Mother was driving and went head on into another car, her own 4-5y.o. daughter died in the accident.

Her and her boyfriend looked like trouble, exactly what you'd picture when you think of a couple driving under the influence and getting their own daughter killed out of their negligence and stupidity.. Sad that they were able to have kids in the first place, some people should be fucking sterilized. I heard a few months back that she got some bullshit slap on the wrist sentence - she was sure to get pregnant before sentencing, figuring that factored into a lighter sentence. I know she's probably already suffered plenty knowing what she did, but I have a hard time feeling sympathy for someone who does something as gross as what she chose to do and feel she deserved a decade or more, not a year or two.

There's people serving more time for possession of weed in this country than others who are responsible for the death of someone.

I've gotten called multiple times and picked to sit on three. First two times I was picked the trial blew up and they scrapped things the first day. A lost VHS juror training tape (someone had moved it from the VCR... this was after VHS was a rarity) and a Juror that lied and claimed they didn't know one of the witnesses and had contaminated the jury, the judge was pissed. Threatened to hold them in contempt really throw the book at the juror who lied and wasted everyone's time and tried to pervert the legal system.

Third time got paid nothing (I believe pay kicks in after a certain amount of time? possibly 2 weeks I haven't looked in years? and uh it isn't much) disruptive to the schedule for a week but ones civic duty and I sure wouldn't want jurors who are aren't paying attention etc. if I was ever on trial. So of course multiple days into the case a witness takes the stand and I recognize them. Hadn't recognized the name was an undergrad in my graduate department years prior. I'm freaking out and wait for their testimony to finish then raise my hand and am asked to approach the judges bench. They call over the various lawyers for prosecution and defense. In hushed whispers I explain the situation. They all interrogated me about the nature of our relationship and agreed to continue the trial. We lost one person along the way from the jurors and then the final day another person failed to appear. This meant both alternates got to serve on the jury as opposed to having to sit through the entire trial and not get to decide in deliberations. Have two for that exact reason. So it was a disruptive week I got a story out of. One of my fellow jurors claimed to have once served on a 6 month trial where they got sequestered in a hotel with no outside news... a rarity but it can happen.

USA

Been summoned once, but I no longer lived in the state / county of summoning at the time it happened. Luckily a family member gave me a heads up regarding the summons and I was able to call and explain before I got to whatever penalty you get for being MIA for a jury duty summon.