I don't mind doing my duty from time to time, but I'm getting "chosen" every 3 or 4 years. And the repetitive boredom of is extremely frustrating. In my county, you're "eligible" for 4 months, meaning you have to report to the pool from which jurors are selected. So, once or twice a week, I report in, sit for five or six hours, get told I'm not selected, and toddle off home to await my $12.50 check for serving. Really getting monotonous, and this has been happening since the 80's, no matter where I live. In all that time, my wife and I have lived together and voted and kept our licenses current. She's gotten jury duty ONCE. I've sat juries, been an alternate, served on a grand jury, etc. The only break I got was covid-I reported for 2 days before they closed the courts. Oh well, snivel time is over.

Naw.. Jury Duty is a roll of the dice. One of my electricians ended up being on the Whitey Bulger trial.

I've made it to the pool twice but never served.

It's a pita, no doubt... but it could be a real "lived experience."


I hate that term so much. It's experience...

I've been called 4 or 5 times, got picked a year or so ago for an evading arrest & high speed pursuit [deadly weapon (truck)] case.
We got up to the point of issuing a verdict & they settled before sentencing.

Once you go for jury duty here, you're excused for three years.
I've gotten called every three years since I was in my late twenties (about 45 years ago).
Yet I know many, many people that have NEVER been called in their life.
Tell me how that works ...

I seem to get picked every three years.
If I don't get picked, I'm stuck there till Wednesday afternoon.

If I get picked, I'm usually alternate juror and get stuck for the whole thing and can't participate unless someone gets sick.

They pay us around $12/day which my boss wanted me to sign the check over but I said no, it's to pay for my parking. I only get paid by work if I am there on my scheduled work days. If it's my off day then I am at court for that $12.

i.e. if I am only scheduled to work wed/thu that week but I am in court mon-fri, I only get paid for wed/thu.

2 or 3 years ago, I got called for County and Federal jury duty 3 months apart. The Feds didn't give a darn that I had actually served on the county jury, and said "it wasn't us." Glad I didn't have to serve on the fed case as it was a LEO accused of having sex with an illegal immigrant while in custody.

The County Case made my heart hurt. It was family court and a custody battle between two narcissists who couldn't co-parent and it was roughly their 10th time in court in 10 years.

One of the "parents" actually made the child testify on their 15th birthday and had their low budget attorney ask, "Which parent do you want to live with?" The kid cried their eyes out on the witness stand in front of a room full of strangers. Quite a few moist eyes in the jury box too.

Both "parents" were shitty human beings and it came down to the least objectionable parent (i.e. too bad there wasn't a 3rd option). After the trial the judge came into the jury room, spoke with us a few minutes, and quipped "I wouldn't let either one of them babysit my kids."

Several years ago a good friend got picked and had to sit on the jury trail for a former Louisiana Governor for some of his quetionable dealings....Every day he drove to a predetermined location (changed every day) and got into a unmarked passenger van and then transported to the courthouse... End of day was just the reverse... juror identity was supposed to be secret during trial... on the final day at the end when he returned home about 5 minutes after he stepped inside someone was knocking on his door.... Looking thru a window he saw a man holding a large video (commercial tv type) camera and another person carrying a reporters michrophone... Before he opened the door he used a phone to call the court marshalls.. As he opened the door he handed the phone to the man holding the microphone whose eyes got real big real fast and without saying anything else he turned to the camera man and said lets go now... The rapidly left the area.... Later at a bbq gathering my friend was giving details that were not reported by the media... Such as the former governor on the witness stand admitting "that he just wanted his piece of the pie"" .................................................. drill sgt.

I have only been called once in my 80 years. Five years ago I was on the Davidson County/Nashville Grand Jury for several weeks. We only rejected one case of "the police smelled marijuana while driving past the house in January".

I’ve been called on three times but never served. First time I never went any further than the phone in stage.

Second time, excused due to three day per week P/T post shoulder surgery, that was ten years ago.

Last time, about three months ago, this time Federal, Flint Michigan. A quick inquiry online and I found out that I could request an excusal due to age and did so quickly.

I could see this would have turned into a massive s****s*** if I hadn’t gotten excused.

I’d have had to buy clothing, jeans, t-shirts are unacceptable, “business casual” is acceptable. Have none of that,trashed what was left once I retired eight years ago. I think I’d break out in hives I’d I put on slacks and a collared shirt so I’d have to buy those. Hundred miles or so per day,I’m fifteen miles one way under to let them pay for lodging. Better allow an hour and forty five minutes or more for existing lane restrictions and the daily expressway crashes on 96 and 23.

Add that the Q&A section states the “average” trial is four to seven days in length. Maybe longer? My luck is I’d get sequestered.

Yeah, my civic duty days are long passed.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: shovelhead,

Been called three times but never served.

First was by Detroit the week after I'd moved to Utah and was in ground school for the airline. I immediately got a Utah DL and was excused. The second time I was in the pool for 2 weeks and had to call in each evening to find out if I had to show up in person the next day. Had to take unpaid time off of work because the job involved multi-day trips.

The third time was during Covid lockdowns. Nothing came of it.

The wife was in the pool for a high profile murder case here but luckily was not selected. It was one of those drawn out cases with too much publicity.

I for some reason seem to get picked for a juror here. I have been on two civil and recently a criminal.
First one was the bad load of corn. Back in the 90’s or so small mom and pop dairy farmer went under. Turns out one such M and P tried to blame a grain broker for putting them under. Didn’t fly. Found out later they tried suing any and everyone they could. This one last almost a week and one of the defendants lawyers was quit entertaining to watch. Really don’t know how he got by with a lot of his antics. Zero $$$ for M & P. Was jury Forman then.

Next case was civil and the bad dog and owner at the dog park. Crazy old man dog owner made a life of letting his dog attack everyone and everything then starting shit and trying to sue them.
Zero $$$ for the asshole dog owner old man.

The last one was a few months ago. Trial only lasted a day. Jose’s marriage was in the shitter. Poor dump illegal wife decides to start working once all three of her kids finally graduated. Stops being his slave house keeper and sex toy. Is making her own money and doing her own thing and Jose had a history of getting real drunk and shooting up the clouds.
Catches her at a local motel stepping out then a few days later on his birthday decides to get really drunk and make a scene when comes home to no clean house, cake or trim. Decides to hold her at gun point and threatening to kill her.
He would have gotten away with everything had his drunk ass not admitted to everything when the cops showed up.
This was one that was crazy in that the jurors mostly a female wanted to let him go Scott free but the evidence was undeniable so we ended up making him a felon but since we made him a felon the ones that wanted to let him go demanded the lightest sentence possible. I wanted jail time and probation but in the end it wasn’t worth fighting with them and dragging it out longer. We knew that the judge could override our decision and give him a stronger sentence if we were to lenient on him which the judge did. We gave a minimum probation and from what I could tell from the court records Jose got weekends in jail with 10 years probation and a felon for life. Was jury Forman for the second time.
This one pissed me off because of Jose giving gun owners a bad name. Jose if your drunk ass had never admitted to what you did your ass would have lives to get drunk and shoot up the shy like you had done so many times before and since you never admitted to anything and you were on your own land the cops never arrested you.

Only remember be called up one other time and not being selected.

Jury pay has really gone up here. Got a check for a little over $80 this time.

I was getting called for jury duty by the magistrate, district, and federal courts for years. Finish 3 months of district then the Feds would call. Sometimes an interesting case would come along. The really interesting cases I never got selected. One involved automatic weapons and explosives. One of the explosive experts scheduled to appear was a former coworker so I was scratched off. Six years ago my doctor submitted a permanent medical waiver of jury duty. It was accepted. Don’t miss it.

I've been summoned 4 times over about 47 years. I actually wound up on a jury once, but then the defendant opted at the last minute for a bench trial. Kind of disappointing really, I still think it would be an interesting experience.

I've only been to jury selection four(?) times and have never been selected. I was summoned once for a federal grand jury but was dismissed due to distance--I had just moved from San Francisco to Sonoma County and was issued the summons the same week. The only time I was even called for voir dire was this most recent time about two months ago. Seat 24 and last to be dismissed. In California, you're only eligible once a year.

Back in 1997 Iwas a juror on a capital murder trial,was sequestered for 6 days in a Caddo Parish hotel.Dude received the death penalty.STILL on death row at Angola in Louisiana.

Have you reached 70 yet, KY passed a law on 23 that allows those 70 and older to opt out.

If you're still a young whipper snapper, then ya gotta wait it out..

Link KRS 29A.080,

I recently learned that if you ignore the notices long enough, the Sheriff's Department will pay you a visit.

I sat on a jury once when I was younger, and I actually rather enjoyed it and doing my civic duty. Never got another notice until a couple of years ago. Then I was getting them every few months. I'd go through the rigmarole and get signed up, and then they'd send notice that I had to be somewhere for selection. I'd have to arrange for someone to cover me at work and when the day arrived they'd always cancel it. This happened six or eight times and it just got too tiresome, so I just started ignoring them. One evening a deputy showed up at my house. So I wrote a letter to the court and am hereafter excused.

I don't mind doing it, but teasing got to be too much of a hassle.

Well, it will be my last time. We're eligible here every two years, and not eligible after 70. I'll be over 70 in about 15 months. I've got to go back Monday, but the mags for my new Colt Commander 9mm are supposed to arrive Saturday. I really wanted to load up and go shooting Monday.

Forgot about the one time I was called up but didn’t make the jury. Whatever you don’t show up in shorts. They take offense to that. The judge brought me up for a special meeting of my very own and made it clear that I go home during the lunch brake and come back in pants and a collared shirt. Damn it was hotter than hell and I was just trying to stay cool.

I've been called three times and kicked every time due to my job. The first time I was when I was a newspaper reporter. I had actually written about one of the cases on the docket.
The other two were when was working in my home county as a sheriff's dispatcher. Didn't even make it to the courthouse, the sheriff's secretary made a call.
I wouldn't mind it, honestly. I enjoyed watching the legal process when I was reporting.