[REPOST] Won't Let Me Go To Jury Duty? Enjoy Being Questioned In Court
[REPOST] Won't Let Me Go To Jury Duty? Enjoy Being Questioned In Court
[REPOST]
This was back in the '80s, my first job, working as a maintenance man at a local hotel. I'd been working there part-time since I was 16 and when I turned 18, I got a notice to attend jury duty. I picked a week and I let my boss know.
The owner of the hotel found out and sees me in the hallway and tells me that I need to do "whatever it takes" to get out of jury duty because he needs me at the hotel that week for a large dog show, and if I'm not at work, I'm fired.
When I get to jury duty, day 1, I get selected for a week-long trial, and the judge asks jurors if there's any reason we cannot serve on the jury. They go around... When they get to me, I'm nervous, never been in court before and too scared to lie.
Cue malicious compliance.
I tell the judge that the owner of the business I work at will fire me if I'm not back today and said I needed to do everything I can to get out of jury duty or I'm fired, other than that I'm fine serving. The judge looks p*ssed.
The judge has me approach the bench, asks for the name of the owner, location, etc. Then he hands the court officer a paper and says something to the officer. I'm told to return to the jury box. About an hour later (still selecting a jury), the officer returns with the owner, visibly shaken, in handcuffs and walked to the front of the judge's bench.
The owner is standing in front of the judge. The judge asks him questions which he apologetically tries to worm out of.
Then the judge instructs him that I will be here for jury duty, I will serve as long as I need to, and he should NOT do anything to retaliate against me -- and that the judge is filing charges and will be instructing the clerk to check with me regularly and if, for any reason, I am fired or face any disciplinary action at work - he will hold the owner in contempt, violation of a court order, and a bunch more legal stuff. He will spend time in jail thinking about how important jury duty is.
Then the judge makes him apologize to me, in court!
I made it onto the jury and I served the week. I reported back to work the following week. I expected some blowback, but I never got fired, none of my shifts were changed and I got paid for my time in jury - I didn't ask why I got paid.
The clerk did check back a few times and I was told to call the judge's clerk's direct phone number if anything happened. It was awesome, I was pretty much bullet-proof and worked until I saved enough to go back to school.
TL;DR: When I got my first notice for jury duty, my boss told me to get out of it or I'd be fired. Being the scared 18-year old that I was, when the judge asked if any of us couldn't serve, I told him what my boss had said. The judge had my boss dragged into court and threatened with jail time. I ended up serving on the jury and getting paid for the days I missed at work.
I did jury duty for a week and was not paid a cent by my full time employer. That jury duty caused me to go without groceries for a while.The U.S. fucking sucks. The employee class is treated like absolute trash here.
"Slavery's illegal... unless we want you for jury duty." is definitely some horseshit. My job will pay for like a week, but the fact that it's entirely possible to be called for longer and have the state pay you fuckall is ridiculous.
Was there no hardship exception where you were? That's unreal. I'm pretty sure they asked at the beginning of the selection process when I served if anyone needed to be dismissed for financial hardship. I think they even used not being able to pay for food as an example of what meets the threshold for an actual hardship.
My trial ended up lasting about 3 weeks and I want to say my check was around $115 and included "mileage"... Lol. I was unemployed at the time, otherwise I would have been pissed. Definitely not doable for a lot of people.
"My boss is demanding I break the law" is not a legitimate hardship for the juror; rather, it's a crime being committed against the juror.
This isn't malicious compliance, it's compliance with the law to the very letter. Good job.
Yeah, like, it doesn't even read like OP intended for the owner to get into trouble, he was just trying not to get himself in trouble.
Judge was based AF.
That is awesome. I don’t get why people don’t want to serve on juries anyway? It’s a civic duty and it will probably be only once in your life. It’s an interesting experience!
You often don't get paid or don't get paid nearly enough. Too many people like paycheque to paycheque to be able to do that.
And in extreme cases, you can get sequestered, where you're expected to basically put your life on hold for the duration of the trial, which complete bullshit and feels as if you're being punished.
It is interesting, but it's also frustrating, and forced, effectively uncompensated work. I say 'effectively' uncompensated because they pay you a token amount that may have been adequate 100 years ago but now is not. Indeed, many people wind up making negative money when taking in the cost of travel and food, to say nothing of actual missed pay from their normal job.
That said it is actually kind of easy to get out of it if you really want to most of the time. When I served, the judge accepted any reasonable excuse from those who needed to leave. The most annoying part though was that it felt like the attorneys liked wasting time on irrelevant bullshit.
Additionally, when the judge asks if there's any reason you can't serve you can state you will never vote against your conscience regardless of the law, and that if you don't believe a person should be punished you will not vote them guilty no matter what the law says. They do not want and will not take someone who votes their conscience above all else.
Can you get in trouble for telling a judge that you do not believe that the court is inherently ethical and that you will only vote on the basis of your personal set of ethics?
See the courts upholding: slavery, the criminalization of certain people marrying, the infringement of other people's rights, etc... Repeatedly throughout US history.
I’ll forever be annoyed at myself for a reply that got me out of jury duty.
I do understand the importance of the concept and I am willing to serve. My only objection so far is how wasteful it can be. I got called up several years in a row …. To miss work and sit in a dingy basement all day until being excused as “not needed”. I even understand the point that the court has to be ready, but there’s got to be a way to make it less inconvenient to “stand by”.
So the one time my jury duty might have turned into doing something useful for society in return for my inconvenience , I get called to the bench and was asked a few questions. Unfortunately I got hit with anxiety and babbled something that I recognized afterwards as the exact opposite as intended, and was immediately excused.
Edit: fine, I’ll say it. The people who would use it to get out of jury duty probably wouldn’t take their responsibility seriously anyway. I attempted to say something like “I hold the police to a higher standard as a witness since that is their job”, and it came out as “yes, I always believe the police”. Wtf?
and it will probably be only once in your life.
Said like a suburbanite.
The structure of USA's society is that everyone travels to cities to work (where the office and/or restaurants / hangout spots are), but then travels to suburbia to sleep / pay taxes.
This means that the cityfolk are constantly doing jury duty for all the suburbanite visitors. Someone who lives in an urban area is pretty much going to get selected for jury duty as often as legally allowed.
Comes with the territory, like complaining about how expensive urban areas are. No one is forcing most people to live in or near a big city. You weren't forced to take a job that requires it.
I hate the suburbs too, they can't subsidize themselves though taxes for example, but this seems more like a matter of choice.
I've been on a jury a couple of times myself. The first time was boring and was a frustrating case. The second time was disturbing but very interesting and definitely a satisfying experience.
I understand that not everyone wants to serve if their employer doesn't pay them; it can be a burden. Luckily mine does so I always look forward to summons in the hopes I get on a jury now.
Once in my life? Please, I'm coming on to my third jury duty, 3 times too many if you ask me to basically not get paid for however long it is.
Because people can't afford to. Most employers won't pay you during that time. The court pays you like $15 a day which probably doesn't cover your parking and lunch.
Depending how long you have to serve you can lose out on hundreds or thousands of dollars.
Most of America is living paycheck to paycheck. So being summoned is basically a death sentence for a lot of people.
I’m from Germany, and while we don’t have this concept of a laymen’s jury, we do have the “Schöffen”. A municipal court would employ one “real” judge who has a law degree and two Schöffen (lay judges who don’t have any prior education in law) to rule a case. Schöffen are honorary posts. Anybody can volunteer for a term of 5 years.
I wouldn’t voluntarily take that post. How would it feel to judge on whether someone goes to jail, or even receives a fine? A wrong verdict unjustly affects people’s whole lives. How could I believe that I was really impartial and didn’t judge based on some prejudice I might not even be aware of? There are innumerable psychological effects that affect how harsh a verdict might be.
I was called to jury duty in Arkansas back in '17. I actually WANTED to participate, but sadly, my spouse wanted to move out of state. When doing the initial court appearance, it was explained that if we received a ticket for parking within x blocks, bring the ticket to the court, and they would solve it. Sure enough, I had a ticket. I took it to the court, and I never heard anything more about it. When I moved, I still had 5 months of eligibility. I called they court, explained my move, and that was it.
We live in this country and gain all the benefits, so we should expect (and WANT) to perform our civic duty.
I remember this post from Reddit. I never understood how employers could be this dense when it comes to jury duty. I'm glad they got called out.
Yeah, is this a repost by a bot for content, or the same guy? I too remember this exact story.
We currently allow reposts from Reddit to help get content into the community. It's possible (and likely) this rule could change in the future.
This is Justicce Porn and I approve.
Thank you for your service. I don't mean the boss thing, that part is awesome. I mean actually serving jury, people need their fair trials
You got paid, because it's required by law that you do. Your boss is also required by law to not interfere with your service. It awesome that the judge held up the law. They would normly just dismiss you because it would take up time they don't have.
You got paid, because it’s required by law that you do.
That's not true. Maybe it varies from state to state, I dunno, but I live in an otherwise very blue state, and there's no statute on the books saying that a private employer must pay for time missed for jury duty.
They are required to allow you to go if you're summoned, but beyond that, it's their choice. Obviously, most (if not all) choose not to.
Probably wanted to make an example out of the boss.
Hell yeah. Sounds like you were definitely in the right, it’s your civic duty to do jury duty when you can
Your boss should have asked you to try and reschedule your jury duty if he needed you that badl for an event. I got summoned, called them up in advance and explained my work load slows down on the summer and could I come in then? They postponed it no problem
Yeah, but then @dystop wouldn't have this great story to share decades later.
I got a jury duty summons last year and thank god I didn't get selected. The judge stated they expected the case to take 4 months. I never heard of anything like this before.
I'm 49 and I got a notice for jury duty for the first time a couple months ago. You had to call a number every evening to see if you had to come in the next day. I never had to come in. In fact only one day that week had anyone coming in.
I got called for Jury Duty when I was 19. Sadly it was for a jurisdiction I had just moved out of the previous month so I was disqualified. I was actually pretty excited to take part!
Been called twice. Been dismissed by an early strike by one of the attorneys both times. Nobody wants me.
Did you ever find out why?
No, but I'm an aerospace engineer who (at the time, or close to it) worked for NASA with a master's degree in structures. A lawyer I know suggested that is that they prefer less educated people on the juries. Could be we're difficult to sway, could be we're just a pain in the ass.
I'm sorry but /c/thathappened
/c/nothingeverhappens