@hg47's Blog: The Tweet & The TakeAway - Posts Tagged "jury-duty"

HOW TO AVOID JURY DUTY.

[The Long Answer]

When I was the Superintendent for Colby Plastics, a couple of decades ago, the Office Manager had a full page letter that got me out of jury duty twice; essentially, it explicitly stated in detail why my presence was essential to the function of the company, and why I could not be spared for even one day. Complete nonsense, of course, as I had trained the foremen and maintenance men and operators so well that even in a worst case scenario, Colby Plastics would be fine without me for any duration: except that my boss, the Vice President of Manufacturing, might have to get his hands dirty for some of the tougher jobs.

Circa year 2013, Congress 113, these types of "dirty tricks" require actual "political pull." Yes, you can get completely out of jury duty, if you know someone who knows someone. But I recommend that if you have that kind of political capital that you save it for when you really need it: arrested for drug possession or suspected of being a serial killer. If you have the kind of influence that can get you excused from jury duty, SAVE THAT INFLUENCE FOR WHEN YOU REALLY NEED IT . Just eat the first day of jury duty; get yourself kicked from days 2-x by deviant behavior.

Every year, jury selection becomes more important, and the actual arguments during trial become less important in determining the final verdict. For background on this point read THE RUNAWAY JURY by John Grisham. The result of a single trial can make or break careers, not just for the Defense and the Prosecution, but for the Judge as well: none of them wants some weird principled hold-out juror who might dead-lock the whole thing into a mistrial by stubbornly sticking to a 1 to 11 vote over and over: bad for the judge, bad for the prosecutor, bad for the defense.

Ask two weird questions, and it's like RED FLAGS & FIREWORKS shooting up that only the Judge and the Prosecutor and Defense Attorney can see. The Judge will immediately want you out of his courtroom fastest. You'll probably go quickly by peremptory challenge, but if not, the Judge will bend over backwards to allow either side to bump you for cause.

@hg47