Would this make Jury Duty better for you?

[TippyThomas]

I've never been selected for jury duty, but I think I'd enjoy the experience. I live in a much more rural setting than it sounds like most of you do, so getting there and parking and all of that would not be an issue. I think it would be an interesting experience.

 

[disneychrista]

Those who mention children/child care as an issue, does your county/state not have a young child exemption? California if you have young children that must receive care between 8am - 5pm you can get excused. Just tick the box and mail back. Or I guess now just go online and complete the survey.

 

[mistysue]

I agree with the previous post one hundred percent. I got called to jury duty two years ago and thank god, I had family nearby who could pick my son up from daycare that day. The courthouse for my county is an hour away, and the daycare was 45 minutes in the opposite direction, so if I'd gotten selected it would have been extremely inconvenient, if not impossible to manage considering my family was not always available. Now my son goes to a closer daycare, so my husband could pick him up without completely messing up his work schedule, but not everyone has the benefit of working from home like we do, or they have kids in school who need to be picked up earlier. They will excuse you from jury duty if you're a stay at home parent of a child younger than school age, but what about parents who work outside the home and have children the same age? It just doesn't make sense.

I have jury duty again coming up in a few weeks. If the courthouse was closer, I wouldn't mind as much. I wish they didn't summon us based on county, but rather the courthouse you lived closest too.

On this same thought - was speaking to a friend who lives in Washington and they have a law about how many hours/day your child can be left at a daycare. Could you imagine being called for jury duty, needing to navigate long drives like that, AND now being in trouble for leaving your child there too long? He said it can be prosecuted and sent to CPS.

 

[mistysue]

Those who mention children/child care as an issue, does your county/state not have a young child exemption? California if you have young children that must receive care between 8am - 5pm you can get excused. Just tick the box and mail back. Or I guess now just go online and complete the survey.

No - also, who defines "young child"? Because usually that only means before they get in school. School hours are typically something like 8:30-3:30, so what do you do with the kids between when you leave for court and get back while they aren't in school?

Finding someone for that is, in my experience, much more difficult than finding someone to watch a younger child for a full day.

 

[disneychrista]

No - also, who defines "young child"? Because usually that only means before they get in school. School hours are typically something like 8:30-3:30, so what do you do with the kids between when you leave for court and get back while they aren't in school?

Finding someone for that is, in my experience, much more difficult than finding someone to watch a younger child for a full day.

I always exempted myself until my kids were in High School because before that I had to provide transportation to/from school and daycare. I think any child under 13 should qualify since that is when the IRS stops allowing Child Care deductions.

 

[nancipants]

I always exempted myself until my kids were in High School because before that I had to provide transportation to/from school and daycare. I think any child under 13 should qualify since that is when the IRS stops allowing Child Care deductions.

I live in Florida. Our county said you could only be exempt if you had a child not of school age (so 5 and under, basically) of whom you were the full-time caregiver. Which completely ignores that some kids don't go to daycare full-time, or only for half days, and that you have no control of when you'll be excused from jury duty so you can properly arrange to pick up your kid.

 

[mistysue]

I always exempted myself until my kids were in High School because before that I had to provide transportation to/from school and daycare. I think any child under 13 should qualify since that is when the IRS stops allowing Child Care deductions.

That is definitely a better policy than many parents deal with. I've known of mothers with breastfed infants having to argue and being denied to get out of it. It seems like everywhere you go it's either so easy anyone can have an excuse, or they treat it like everyone's excuse is fake.
I know when I was in the process of being assigned that 6 week case with nobody to watch my kids, the judge didn't take it seriously until I brought up medical therapies and a failure to thrive diagnosis... otherwise they were basically cool with my husband needing to fly home and quit his job to watch kids so I could get paid like $12/day to be on a jury on the grounds that "this is an inconvenience for everyone."

 

[tvguy]

Throwing more money at an inefficient process doesn't resolve that issue. As others have mentioned, the current process wastes a lot of people's time sitting/waiting/doing nothing. And then you may get sent home without ever being on a jury. The time's I have been called for jury duty, the entire process was inefficient & poorly designed and could be setup to make better use of people's time.

We've been binge watching Perry Mason and it is amusing the rapid time frames portrayed in court. Murder happens, suspect arrested the same day, trial begins the next week. While defendants have a right to a speedy trial, they can choose NOT to have a speedy trial.
I was on a wrong death civil suit for 6 1/2 weeks. That trial probably could have run it's course in 3 weeks if not for one frequent objection from one side or the other......"lack of foundation" for asking a question. So then the other attorney would have to spend 20 or 30 minutes asking what in reality, are meaningless questions to establish "foundation" for asking a question. When we first arrived in the Jury Deliberation room, the first thing someone said was that the JURY needed their own attorney to OBJECT to those objections, and to "stipulate" that foundation had been laid for the question, in question.
I think the most valuable legal lesson I learned from that case was, under the law, you have NO legal right to object to being transferred from one medical facility to another, if the other facility can reasonably assumed to be qualify to treat you.

 

[tvguy]

I have to get up about 4 a.m. and be at a train station by 6 a.m. The parking is extremely small, about 20-25 spaces. Not nearly enough for commuters to the city. While $100 would be nice, it's not worth the hassle of getting into the city for jury duty.

LOL. I can see where Jury Duty can change your normal schedule. I worked 11 pm to 7 am for 25 years, and then 3 am to 11:30 am for 13 years so I got to sleep in when I was on Jury Duty.

 

[redrosesix]

County is Northern California raising Juror pay to $100 a day.

https://www.actionnewsnow.com/news/...cle_27dd71aa-6b05-11ef-9a74-4391be8591df.html

This would make a huge difference to me. the last time I got selected I was a single parent. My province paid $30 per day, no reimbursement for parking or food included and they expected the trial to last 4 weeks.... so of course, I got released based on income. I'm sure there are a lot of people in my situation.

 

[Kim&Chris]

As the owner of a very small business, paying an employee a full day's work when he is not working is difficult. If your employer does it, you are lucky!

 

[bluezy]

Those who mention children/child care as an issue, does your county/state not have a young child exemption? California if you have young children that must receive care between 8am - 5pm you can get excused. Just tick the box and mail back. Or I guess now just go online and complete the survey.

Our county actually has an onsite drop-in daycare center at the courthouse. Anyone who needs to come to the courthouse for domestic relations hearings or jury duty can leave their child(ren) there for free. I never used that daycare center but I've heard it's really great and they have top-notch employees who are great with the kids.

Our juror survey does ask if you are the full-time caretaker for a child under a certain age (I can't remember what that age is...6 maybe???). I got summoned for jury duty in May of the year our youngest daughter was in kindergarten. At that time, our school district only had 1/2 day KG, so I needed to put her on the bus at 11:15 a.m. and be there to get her off the bus at 3:45. Our older kids would be home from school by 3:00, so that wasn't a big issue, but it was going to be a challenge to find someone to put her on the bus at 11:15 a.m. I sent a request to delay my summons until some time after September explaining the KG situation and that the next year she would be in school all day and I could make arrangements for her. I got a response back that I was excused from serving at that time. Because of the courthouse daycare center, people don't automatically get excused from jury duty just because they are the full-time caretaker for a child, but I guess my situation was a little different. I wasn't expecting to get excused, I just wanted to delay my report date (which our county seems to be very flexible with. They will change your dates 1 time per summons with no explanation needed -- just request it. If you need to change it again, you need to provide documentation/proof of need for delay). I was pleasantly surprised that they excused me.

 

[disneychrista]

As the owner of a very small business, paying an employee a full day's work when he is not working is difficult. If your employer does it, you are lucky!

I'd imagine the majority of those that get paid work for a governmental agency. No way my former private sector employer would ever willing pay for Jury Duty.

 

[tvguy]

This would make a huge difference to me. the last time I got selected I was a single parent. My province paid $30 per day, no reimbursement for parking or food included and they expected the trial to last 4 weeks.... so of course, I got released based on income. I'm sure there are a lot of people in my situation.

Like I said above, I was on a case for six and half weeks. I worked graveyard shift at the time so the only hardship was for the guy who had to cover my 11pm to 7 am for six and half weeks. For me, the Jury Duty schedule made it easier for me to pick up my kids.
Most of my jury panel were public sector workers with work schedules identical to the courts schedule. We had one retired juror and I was one of two private sector workers. The other private sector worker had it rougher than the rest of us. He employer had no problem with him being in court and he got paid, HOWEVER the employer still expected him to come in every day after Jury Duty and do the work he would have done that day if he had been during the day. So after six hours every day in court, he would put in 8 hours at work.

 

[sam_gordon]

I'd imagine the majority of those that get paid work for a governmental agency. No way my former private sector employer would ever willing pay for Jury Duty.

My former employer did. Of course, that was over 20 years ago when I was on Jury Duty, but I'm pretty sure when my employees were on jury duty, they got paid also.

Not sure what my current company's policy is, but it's based out of CA, so probably.

 

[redrosesix]

I'd imagine the majority of those that get paid work for a governmental agency. No way my former private sector employer would ever willing pay for Jury Duty.

That was my situation. My employer couldn't pay me for the days that I wasn't working and there was no way we could live on $30 per day for a month. And I would still have expenses for child care and transportation.

 

[disneychrista]

Not sure what my current company's policy is, but it's based out of CA, so probably.

Not necessarily. As far as I know there is nothing in California requiring employer to give paid leave for jury duty.

 

[disneychrista]

The other private sector worker had it rougher than the rest of us. He employer had no problem with him being in court and he got paid, HOWEVER the employer still expected him to come in every day after Jury Duty and do the work he would have done that day if he had been during the day. So after six hours every day in court, he would put in 8 hours at work.

So the employer wasn't paying him while he was on Jury Duty, he was working after Jury Duty.

 

[tvguy]

So the employer wasn't paying him while he was on Jury Duty, he was working after Jury Duty.

He WAS going to be paid, AND allowed the time to be on Jury Duty. But the employer required he make up any work he missed. He was salaried, so he was being paid to complete specific tasks, not to work specific hours.

 

[disneychrista]

He WAS going to be paid, AND allowed the time to be on Jury Duty. But the employer required he make up any work he missed. He was salaried, so he was being paid to complete specific tasks, not to work specific hours.

Potato / Tomato. Either way he was working and not truly given paid time off to serve on the jury.