I was told that the surveys are drawn from the voter registration and driver licensing lists.
I've been called a few times and I had it deferred when my kids were very young.
Once, when I worked full-time, I looked forward to sitting in that waiting room. My job at the time was really stressful and awful, so I didn't even try to get the summons deferred, lol. I had a quiet week on jury duty, reading books and watching television in the waiting room.
Grand Jury Duty was the pits - had to go to a Federal Court about an hour away. They did pay my commuting costs because of the distance. You do get a stipend, it was a few dollars a day. I always declined it because my company paid me during jury duty.
Security was really strict, so going out for lunch was a hassle with metal detectors and lines. I think they took our cell phones and other electronics away as well.
Most jury duty now involves calling a number or checking a website the night before to see IF you have to actually report. I've had to go in at most once or twice in person.
When you do have to report, you wait in a big room. The Federal waiting room was nice, with couches and televisions. Sometimes, they ask for volunteers for Civil Court if you were called for Criminal Court. In theory, those are shorter cases, but you might have to go to another location to serve.
They'll call big groups into the courtroom, where you sit on benches and wait less comfortably. This is "empaneling."
Then, the court calls up people in smaller groups to sit in the jury box. They call 12 plus a few alternates. The judge and lawyers ask each person questions and sometimes send people back to the waiting room. I've never been empaneled twice - they usually send anyone who was empaneled once home with a "completed service" card.
They do ask if you have an objection or feel you can't be objective and open-minded. I was in a court once where someone tried the "Just look at (the defendant) - the tattoos scream 'criminal,' don't you see?" method of trying to get out of duty. (Overheard him telling his buddy in the waiting room beforehand.) It didn't work, they sat him on the jury, lol. The lawyers can only dismiss so many jurors, I guess the defending lawyer didn't want to waste his "get out of jury duty" pass on the smartmouth, figuring he wasn't a real threat.
I usually get dismissed if it's not a white-collar crime, for some reason. On my last jury, I noticed that any juror who had a college degree or was a business professional was dismissed. The accused was here illegally, committed identity theft and was deported, but he re-entered the country through Canada using false papers and was arrested again. It really was a no-brainer and I guess his attorney figured that out and got rid of anyone who wouldn't be sympathetic. The construction worker, the waitress, and the retail clerk I chatted with while waiting were all kept. In a way, that's bad because they were all hourly workers and I was salaried - I got paid while serving jury duty; they didn't.
The only time I was seated on a jury and the trial actually started, the lawyers made a plea bargain agreement during a break and the trial ended without our having to make a judgement. We all got to leave.
after a 2 hour deliberation.
