Ditching Jury Duty
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Is your business model so fragile that two weeks of not being in the office during weekdays would cause you irreperable harm??? A bad cold can last longer than that, and you would be too sick to work at night.
Stay out of drafts.
When we were in the midst of our jury trial, the teachers (there were two in the pool) were automatically excused because school was in session and one of them was a special ed teacher. I guess they felt the disruption to the "challenged" students would be too much. Also dismissed was a long haul independent truck driver who would lose his contracts if he couldn't haul for a few days. Government workers who might have knowledge of our case were also excused. A pregnant lady who was about to pop was excused because the judge didn't want to see her give birth in the jury box.
Other than that we had a smattering of self employed people, retired people, employees of other companies and unemployed students. I'm sure it was a huge inconvenience for all of them to be there for so long. Our trial took 4 weeks. It was a huge inconvenience for myself and my husband who are also both self employed. Financially it cost us a lot, as I'm sure it did the jurors. We felt that they all took our little case very seriously and were grateful for that. As I said before, the entire process was fascinating and something that I hope never to repeat.
And Sonnyboy, I don't correct people's speech. However, when you write something, people (not just you) should know some of the basics. We can't look you in the face on the internet or when you send a letter to someone, but your grammer, or lack of, is a reflection of you. Sure people make mistakes in spelling and grammer. After all we are only human and are in a hurry to post. You were complaining about the LOL, ROFLMAO, BTW, and other l33t sP34k in this forum as being childish and out of place. We are "supposed" to be financial professionals and as such we should hold ourselves to a higher standard and at least know the difference between your and you're.
End of Ms. Grammer rant
It isn't just this board. This is just my pet peeve and favorite hoppy horse. You guys have really very good writing skills. I worry about the younger generation though. Some of the crap you read on the game boards is just terrible (yes I admit to the guilt of playing on line games. ) . They don't even try to write in any recognizable form of English and furthermore they don't care. I fear for them when it comes time to write up their resumee or fill out a job application.
It's a small thing when we are fooling around here, but unfortunately people who were educated beginning in the 70's and especially more recently in the 80' and 90's, have no idea how to write, much less use math skills. Don't get me started on the appalling lack of knowledge about history. http://archives.cnn.com/2002/fyi/teachers.ednews/05/10/histo ry.scores.ap/ Years ago when I was an officer at a bank branch, we had a hell of a time trying to find anybody who could write a decent letter or even count change back to the customers!!
It's no wonder the country is falling apart and things don't get done. We have raised a generation of boobs!
[quote=Starka]
"Where public spirit prevails, liberty is secure."
---George Washington
[/quote]
errata..
The author of this quote was actually Noah Webster, and not George Washington.
My apologies.
Doberman, as Starka said, if you're afraid of the hurt to your business by serving, then you're already in trouble. Don't you have any staff support? Don't you have a cell phone? Don't you have a laptop? Don't you have a strong enough relationship with your clients who will understand that you won't be as readilly available as normal? Aren't you with a strong enough b/d where they can provide support in your absence? (I'm self-employed as an indy, and my b/d has desks of registered home office service associates who can take trades from clients for me, answer client questions, etc. during absences.) Sure, you'll be inconvenienced, but your practice should be organized enough where you can attend to pressing business matters in the early AM, lunch breaks, & in the evening.
What do you do when you go on vacation? Or is your business so fragile that you can't even do that?
And, freedom comes with a price. Part of that price is carrying out our responsibilities as citizens. Besides wanting to dodge jury duty, I guess you also don't pay taxes!
So…no one’s gonna help the poor guy out then? I was sorta hoping for a long list of good excuses I could use to help avoid doing whatever I could.
Ok here are some...
This is my Federal Inmate number...that will stop them cold.
I have to report to my parole officer weekly. Is this thing going to take long?
My mom/child/wife/husband/dog is tied to the bed and if I can't be home to feed her/him/it at least every other day she /he/it is going to starve.
Can I bring my kidney dialysis machine into the jury box?
You know Hitler/Stalin/Pol Pott/Kazinski had the right idea!!! (Mutter this really loudly and often, and make sure your eyes bug out and the veins in your forhead look like they are going to pop.)
Exibit Tourette's Syndrome. Random outburst of profanities and severe body ticks.
Actually some real excuses.
"I will lose my job if the trial is longer than X days." You do have to prove this. Can't make it up. Just experiencing financial difficulties is not going to cut it. It has to be catastrophic. For ex. you can't make the house payment because you are living paycheck to paycheck and you will lose your home. I doubt that us successful stock broker types are going to believed if that was the excuse.....even if it could be true
You have a baby/small child and don't have any child care available or can't afford to hire a babysitter. Single parents can use this one.
You have a child or other dependent with physical disabilities that needs you to be there daily and hourly for personal medical assistance.
You have a physical disability and can't sit for very long. You need a note from your doctor just like High School.
You have an operation scheduled and it cannot be put off or rescheduled. Note required.
And of course the standard question: Do you know someone who is involved with the trial and therefore cannot be objective? or "Do you know anything about the issue coming up for trial that would predjudice you?" In our trial, because we are a small area and the issue was fairly well known, a lot of jurors got off on that one.
"Only The Paranoid Survive" - Quote from the former head of Intel (I've forgotten his name).
Oh yeah, I'm paranoid about my business. It's what gives me the juice to get up out of bed every morning. It's what tells me to exercise at 5AM and be at my desk by 6:30AM. It's what tells me to read several quality several newspapers every day to know more than my clients. I don't play golf or have any other hobbies. My clients don't pay me to waste time, they pay me to know this stuff.
Oh sure, a day or two in jury duty won't hurt my business. But can you guarantee only a day or two? Ever hear of cases going on for weeks? Months? Grand juries, down here, go on for weeks, typically. I can't take the chance of "maybe" I'll get lucky and only get tied-up for a day of two. I'm not taking any chances. I'm going to try and nip this jury duty thing in the bud.
Cell phones and laptops are not allowed to be possessed by jurors. You are cut-off from the outside world.
If I am still required to show-up for jury duty, I have one final ace to play, in hopes of shortening my forced attendance and it's the legal term: jury nullification (Google it). Just stating that I believe in the term (which I really do), should get me thrown off many cases. Maybe I'll get a reputation as a troublemaker and they won't ask me back!
Hey,boy. Vietnam put a two year dent in my plans. Longer than that, for many of us. The difference being that we all had a sense of honor and duty, while you clearly do not.
So stop snivellin', and suck it up.
Sheesh. Two weeks. Some hardship.
i didn’t read the whole thread, but i just don’t respond and if anything comes up in my life, i just say i never received it
noggin: Doberman- Give it a rest moron...
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Hmmm, me a moron? Who continues to click on this category and read the posts? And you're telling me to give it a rest? If I stopped posting, you might have get back to work!
My sister, an orthodontist, received a jury summons a few years back. She recalled from a jurisprudence class or seminar(?) that dentists and veterinarians are exempt in our state because most of them are sole practitioners (oddly enough, doctors are not exempt here). She had a phone conversation with the clerk about this and the clerk advised her that she wasn't exempt. After discussing the situation with another attorney from her dental school and being again advised that she was exempt, she made a decision to keep all of her appointments and not show for duty. Her husband, not being the sharpest crayon in the box, went down to the courthouse and proceeded to get in a shouting match with the clerk, informing her that the judge did not make the law, but rather enforced the law.
The judge, overhearing the conversation, became incensed about having his authority questioned and the next thing my sister knew, a deputy was standing in her clinic demanding that she come with him. She was held in a small room connected to the courtroom and guarded by the deputy from 9:00 am until about 12:30, like a hardened criminal. I forgot to mention that she was about halfway through a pregnancy at the time.
At any rate, when the jury was selected, the judge finally called her out and proceeded to lecture her about her civic duty. At this point, she was humiliated and crying and explained to the judge why she did not appear. The judge (erroneously as it turned out) told her that the exemption had been repealed. Turns out that the exemption still exists today and sis reports happily now that she's never received a summons again.
The moral of this story? Don't screw with the judge, even if you know he's wrong...and don't show your dimbulb spouse your jury summons...