Jury Duty
Jury duty.
If you have never seen the jury system at work, as I had not. Then are thrust into it one of two things will happen.
1. You will marvel at the American jurist system. It can be the great equalizer putting a stop to nincompoop lawyers.
I had a lawyer cry during jury selection. It was staged. He was a rip-off lawyer hoping for a huge punitive damages settlement. This old lady had a 15000.00 house and I found out latter that they were suing for millions of dollars. He burst into tears while interviewing the prospective jury. I found out latter he did this so that the other lawyers in the room could judge our responses to a grown man crying, so that they could better pick a jury that would be sympathetic to the old lady. All of the jurors saw through it.
2. You would run screaming from the courtroom. Most of the jurors don’t want to be there. The ones I spoke to did however take this very seriously. There was a capital murder trial going on that week and we did not want to be on that jury. We all did however wish to take our civic duty seriously and we did all wish to be fair and honest. I did see someone spell city hall (City Haul) and this person was chosen for a jury.
I was not chosen for a jury. I spoke with one of the lawyers after I was dismissed. He was sneaking a smoke behind the building between the dumpsters; he said that juries don’t like smoking lawyers. I asked him why I was dismissed; he said that I was deemed too contrary to choose, that and I was reading a John Grisham book, and that is a big red flag to lawyers. He also told me that he and his associate would put their suits out in the sun to fade so they would not look as if they were rich lawyers, they never came to court with their hair neatly combed, and never tied their ties correctly so as to appear as common as everyone else. I could go on but I got nauseous and threw up on his scuffed un-shined loafers.
I felt that I was a little cheated by not getting called to serve on a jury. But I did show up. Out of 350 citizens called only 58 showed up. The other 292 were sent fines in the mail. They can server 5 days in jail and pay a 5000.00 fine. I asked a judge if they collected a lot of these and she said no. But it goes on their record and if they are ticketed or ever have a legal problem it will pop up and they will be dealt with then.
The murder trial was settled out of court. They looked at the remaining jurors that would have heard the trial and it was composed of people like me (contrary) who were the left over and the defendant did not like his chances.
Still with all the crap and nincompoop lawyers I would rather take my chances with them than with the governments of China, Cuba, any Middle Eastern government, etc,etc…..
Snagley out
If you have never seen the jury system at work, as I had not. Then are thrust into it one of two things will happen.
1. You will marvel at the American jurist system. It can be the great equalizer putting a stop to nincompoop lawyers.
I had a lawyer cry during jury selection. It was staged. He was a rip-off lawyer hoping for a huge punitive damages settlement. This old lady had a 15000.00 house and I found out latter that they were suing for millions of dollars. He burst into tears while interviewing the prospective jury. I found out latter he did this so that the other lawyers in the room could judge our responses to a grown man crying, so that they could better pick a jury that would be sympathetic to the old lady. All of the jurors saw through it.
2. You would run screaming from the courtroom. Most of the jurors don’t want to be there. The ones I spoke to did however take this very seriously. There was a capital murder trial going on that week and we did not want to be on that jury. We all did however wish to take our civic duty seriously and we did all wish to be fair and honest. I did see someone spell city hall (City Haul) and this person was chosen for a jury.
I was not chosen for a jury. I spoke with one of the lawyers after I was dismissed. He was sneaking a smoke behind the building between the dumpsters; he said that juries don’t like smoking lawyers. I asked him why I was dismissed; he said that I was deemed too contrary to choose, that and I was reading a John Grisham book, and that is a big red flag to lawyers. He also told me that he and his associate would put their suits out in the sun to fade so they would not look as if they were rich lawyers, they never came to court with their hair neatly combed, and never tied their ties correctly so as to appear as common as everyone else. I could go on but I got nauseous and threw up on his scuffed un-shined loafers.
I felt that I was a little cheated by not getting called to serve on a jury. But I did show up. Out of 350 citizens called only 58 showed up. The other 292 were sent fines in the mail. They can server 5 days in jail and pay a 5000.00 fine. I asked a judge if they collected a lot of these and she said no. But it goes on their record and if they are ticketed or ever have a legal problem it will pop up and they will be dealt with then.
The murder trial was settled out of court. They looked at the remaining jurors that would have heard the trial and it was composed of people like me (contrary) who were the left over and the defendant did not like his chances.
Still with all the crap and nincompoop lawyers I would rather take my chances with them than with the governments of China, Cuba, any Middle Eastern government, etc,etc…..
Snagley out
