Lawyering Through Life

People will say just about anything...

to get out of serving on a jury for five to six weeks.

"I need a cigarette every few hours."

Upon reading this, Judge remarked, "Well, I think maybe it is time we help this guy quit smoking." No release for Smokey McSmokerson.

"I am in the middle of planning a wedding."

Upon hearing this, I could only think "Seriously? Do you use that excuse to try and get out of assignments at work?"

"I am planning on going to China."

Upon reading this, the prosecutor inquired as to how serious those plans were. From what I could tell, the plans were made right after the woman read the part about the trial being five to six weeks.

"I need to be in West Coast City on X day during the trial to witness the settlement of a class action."

Upon hearing this, I chuckled to myself and thought this guy was screwed. At least Judge would want to hear why his Big Firm couldn't send someone else in his place. But Judge released this guy without blinking an eye. Lawyers watch out for other lawyers, I guess.

Judge was pretty tough on the potential jurors. The questionnaire required the potential jurors to identify why it would be impossible to serve. And he really harped on that word "impossible." Five to six weeks is a tremendous time committment - talk about disrupting your life. I get it. But at the end of the day, jury duty is important. Our judicial system can't function without the crucial role that jurors play. I guess that is why I can make light of these excuses - from what I learned today, I just need to write some high-brow lawyerly nonsense and I will be released without question. Which is incredibly ironic to me - all the lawyers I know would love to serve on a jury, but very few ever will.


Oh and for those looking to get out of jury duty, the following reasons (besides being an attorney) resulted in immediate release:

1) any invocation of hearing problems
2) any reference to anxiety attacks or depression
3) interestingly enough, only a limited number of other medical reasons - seriously, one person indicated that he/she had knee surgery coming up and the attorneys wanted further explanation as to how invasive the knee surgery was.
4) those who are truly self-employed but again Judge was a bit of a stickler about this.
5) on-call doctor

posted by jersey @ 8:19 PM