Would this make Jury Duty better for you?

[tvguy]

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

Employers aren't required to pay you, just to give you the time off work. Getting paid by your employer is just a bonus.
Well, then I wasn't either. I was salaried too, which, as the head of HR put it, means they "were obligated to pay me as long as I step in the building once a pay period." I worked 11 pm to 7 am. Jury Duty was 9 am to 430 pm. So my time away from work was different than the hours I was on jury duty. Salaried means you are paid NOT for time you work, but for the task you have been assigned. So if it takes you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks of the year to complete your task, you make the same salary as if if you do it in 10 minutes.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

If having one of those two insurance companies is going to disqualify you then it should have been an immediate okay we are done here no reason for you to come.

Questions being asked are just questions being asked, they are gathering information on the potential jurers but it does not mean you are disqualified.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

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, in my county there is zero exemption for child care. The reasoning

"Are parents/guardians with children at home excused from jury service?
No, there is no automatic exclusion. If we were to exclude all parents/guardians with small children, a significant portion of the population base would be excluded from jury service. This would result in juries that are not truly representative of our community. You are responsible for arranging for your own child care if you are called for jury duty. If you have a scheduling conflict, please contact the Jury Department via email or postal mail with an explanation of why you are requesting a delay in your jury service. If you have any other questions, please call the Jury Department."

"May I reschedule my jury service to a later date?
If you have a scheduling conflict, please contact the Jury Department via email or postal mail with an explanation of why you are requesting a delay in your jury service. If you have any other questions, please call the Jury Department."

I can't say I disagree with their reasoning but I can 100% agree that doesn't make it workable for individuals who cannot get childcare.

 

[mjkacmom]

They pay $5 a day here. I worked hiring security guards for minimum wage, they’d ask me if I could get them out of it since they’d lose pay, felt so bad. My 23 year old was called twice this year, here at home in NJ and in Boston at school (apparently MA likes to take advantage of all of the college students in Boston, which doesn’t make sense, what college student is going to fail out due to jury duty). I don’t know what the answer is.

 

[kdonnel]

Reading this thread makes me happy with how the courts and jury selection work in my county.

The jury assembly room is huge. Seats 1500, on average they call in 1000 for the week so there is initially room to spread out. While the seats do not have arms they do have lots of padding.

If you get stuck in the jury assembly room for some of the day there are one person booths where you can hold private conversations, some three sided work areas with power, a large break room with multiple vending machines and alternative seating, and large clean bathrooms.

Parking is free and plentiful with your choice of surface parking or a parking deck.

There is an onsite cafeteria but I was given a couple hours for lunch and there are dozens if not hundreds of restaurants within 10-20 minutes drive.

The conditions for others sound grim.

 

[mjkacmom]

Reading this thread makes me happy with how the courts and jury selection work in my county.

The jury assembly room is huge. Seats 1500, on average they call in 1000 for the week so there is initially room to spread out. While the seats do not have arms they do have lots of padding.

If you get stuck in the jury assembly room for some of the day there are one person booths where you can hold private conversations, some three sided work areas with power, a large break room with multiple vending machines and alternative seating, and large clean bathrooms.

Parking is free and plentiful with your choice of surface parking or a parking deck.

There is an onsite cafeteria but I was given a couple hours for lunch and there are dozens if not hundreds of restaurants within 10-20 minutes drive.

The conditions for others sound grim.

My county courthouse is in Newark NJ.

 

[neverlandsky]

Pay wouldn’t matter. It’s the idea of being locked into a seat, can’t move unless given permission, with very few breaks. As someone with endometriosis, it’s a nightmare scenario for me to be locked into a seat. If there was an option to zoom at home, I would do it.

 

[tvguy]

Reading this thread makes me happy with how the courts and jury selection work in my county.

The jury assembly room is huge. Seats 1500, on average they call in 1000 for the week so there is initially room to spread out. While the seats do not have arms they do have lots of padding.

If you get stuck in the jury assembly room for some of the day there are one person booths where you can hold private conversations, some three sided work areas with power, a large break room with multiple vending machines and alternative seating, and large clean bathrooms.

Parking is free and plentiful with your choice of surface parking or a parking deck.

There is an onsite cafeteria but I was given a couple hours for lunch and there are dozens if not hundreds of restaurants within 10-20 minutes drive.

The conditions for others sound grim.

They call our system standby jury duty. Twice a day for two weeks you have to check the website or call the jury recording. At 5 pm the previous day they post which groups have to report the next morning. At 11:30 am you check again, and see if you need to report at 1 pm. The have a huge pool of people to call in for two weeks, but only call in enough to cover the anticipated number needed each half of the day. Sure it isn't exact, but in theory only 1/10th of the people on jury duty for that two week period are ever actually in the jury assembly room. If you get called in, and not picked that day for a jury pool, your service is complete.

 

[cvjw]

Just served on a jury a few weeks ago. Metro atlanta county. $50 per day. Free, plentiful parking. Many restaurants within walking distance - the superior court building is in our renovated downtown area. Exemptions for those caring for children and those over 70. Brand new court building. Huge waiting area with private areas and snacks close by.

We were served lunch while we decided the case. We were questioned for 2 days by the attorneys before the jury was decided. I knew that I would be picked and had just about picked out all the others that would be selected. Attorneys picked the normal people.

Wasn’t a terrible experience. Just didn’t like having to send someone to jail.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

It would not do me any good. My best understanding of my employers policy is that they will pay employees their regular amount, but the employees have to hand over anything they are paid to be a juror. It may be wrong, but that's what I have heard. That said, I still want to be on a jury sometime, I have never had the opportunity to go further than call the number only to find out my presence would not be required when I was "on notice".

 

[tvguy]

It would not do me any good. My best understanding of my employers policy is that they will pay employees their regular amount, but the employees have to hand over anything they are paid to be a juror. It may be wrong, but that's what I have heard. That said, I still want to be on a jury sometime, I have never had the opportunity to go further than call the number only to find out my presence would not be required when I was "on notice".

Yes, it is common for employers to ask that any juror pay you get, if you are an hourly worker, be turned over to them. I have not seen that with salaried workers, since technically, if you are salaried, you are hired to do a specific job, not work a certain number of hours.

 

[starry_solo]

Knocking on wood but I've never been selected for a jury.
Called to jury duty, yes, but excused after 1-2 days (first day if never called, 2nd day if called to a courtroom but a jury isn't impaneled yet so have to go back the 2nd day).
My employer pays my full salary for as long as I'm on jury duty, I have to sign over the check I get from the state to them (or decline the check, the policy changed in the years since I've worked there so if I ever get called, I'll have to go find the current one)

 

[disneychrista]

Yes, it is common for employers to ask that any juror pay you get, if you are an hourly worker, be turned over to them. I have not seen that with salaried workers, since technically, if you are salaried, you are hired to do a specific job, not work a certain number of hours.

While this is true they can require you to use your paid time off to cover days when you are out for more than 4 hours.

 

[tvguy]

While this is true they can require you to use your paid time off to cover days when you are out for more than 4 hours.

Short answer, it's complicated. At least in California. And at least at the company I worked at. I say that, because there was another situation involving someone else who was salaried that came up, and as I recall, we were told that salaried people technically get paid by the year, no matter how many hours they work. Legally, there is no way to put any required number of hours on their work day, week, month or year.

This definition of Salaried employee from Google kind of hints at that.
"A salaried employee refers to an employee that gets paid a set amount of compensation for their work instead of an hourly rate. They receive the full amount of pay they're promised, regardless of how many hours they work during a workweek. Typically, salaried employees receive a regular, biweekly or monthly paycheck."

EDIT Salaried positions were abused by some companies. At the employer I was working at when I was on that long Jury Duty, they did not realize (no did the employees) in California there is a minimum salary that has to be paid. Very few if any of the people in my job specialty did not make that minimum. That currently is $66,560 a year, Not sure what it was then, but those positions have all since been converted to hourly

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

Yes, it is common for employers to ask that any juror pay you get, if you are an hourly worker, be turned over to them. I have not seen that with salaried workers, since technically, if you are salaried, you are hired to do a specific job, not work a certain number of hours.

I am hourly, i would nave no problem being paid what I make and letting them have what they paid me to be on a jury. I think it would be a very interesting experience and I would like to serve.

 

[tvguy]

I am hourly, i would nave no problem being paid what I make and letting them have what they paid me to be on a jury. I think it would be a very interesting experience and I would like to serve.

I found it fascinating. And the courthouse is 3 blocks from where my wife worked, so I could walk over to her office for lunch with her.

 

[auntfrannie]

The pay isn't the issue for me since I get paid by my employer. However, it would be nice to not have any out of pocket expenses related to jury duty. I just got back from jury duty and thankfully didn't get picked. The process is so antiquated; surely in this day of technology there has to be a better way to cull through the applicants and have the voir dire done via a zoom call.

193 potential jurors in a room that was too small and no A/C. The room was only large enough for 120 so the overflow went into another room. They called 106 for the voir dire and the rest of us sat there until noon when they sent out out to lunch and had to be back at 1:30. At 2:30 they let us go.

It cost me $7 for parking and $14 for lunch. I think the county pay is $9. At least validate our parking!

 

[dez1978]

I know I got all my understanding about how the courts worked from watching prime time dramas and was shocked when I found out how it really worked when I was party to a lawsuit.

Sadly, this is true for a majority of the public, which is evident every time someone is arrested, and it's posted on FB and the comments are all "They couldn't have arrested him without evidence!" bro... They can, and they do all the time. Like 3 weeks ago in our small town, there was a shooting. like 2 hours later, they made 1 arrest. Plastered his name and pic EVERYWHERE!!! Arrested him, charged him with murder, held him for about 36 hours and then were like "My bad, we got the wrong guy!" and released him. While the charge was dropped, it will show up on every law enforcement background check for the rest of his life as a murder charge that was nolle prosequi. So unless he can afford a private attorney to get this charge removed from his record, it will remain, and every officer who ever pulls him over will see he was arrested for murder and have no idea why it was dropped. Was it because he really was the wrong guy or bc of a technicality. They will see it, and question it, and err on the side of caution due to that charge, and this young man will pay the price for it.

. While defendants have a right to a speedy trial, they can choose NOT to have a speedy trial.

Fun fact. There is no legal definition of what qualifies as a speedy trial. So even if you assert your right to a speedy trial, it could still take years to go to trial.

 

[disneychrista]

it would be nice to not have any out of pocket expenses related to jury duty.

It cost me $7 for parking and $14 for lunch. I think the county pay is $9. At least validate our parking!

I agree that parking should be covered but not that they should cover your meal(s). You have the option to bring your lunch. I don't understand why some feel the court should pay for meals during jury service. Unless you are sequestered and can not bring food from home, it is your choice to go out for lunch.

 

[disneychrista]

Fun fact. There is no legal definition of what qualifies as a speedy trial. So even if you assert your right to a speedy trial, it could still take years to go to trial.

While this may be true, at least in California there are time limits. I have seen cases get dismissed for the prosecution dragging things out too long.

§ 1382 PC – Speedy Trial Rights & Grounds for Dismissal​

California Penal Code § 1382 grants defendants the right to be tried within 60 days of being charged with a felony. For a misdemeanor or infraction, one has the right to trial

• within 45 days if out of custody or
• within 30 days if in custody.

These time requirements help protect your right to a speedy trial. This right is protected by the United States and California constitutions.