Juries

[gringalais]

We were watching a movie on TV last night that involved a trial. My husband said he finds the whole trial by jury system strange, since you have people who have not studied law making legal decisions. Here all trials are by judge.

I was wondering where else besides the US do jury trials exist? I realized I have no idea.

Has anyone here served on a jury? When living in the US, I got called for jury duty twice and got picked to serve on the jury both times. One was a DUI case. It was kind of strange, the guy had gone to law school but never passed the bar exam, so he represented himself. The other was a civil case regarding a woman who hit a pedestrian while driving and we had to decide how much in damages to give him.

[Deleted]

In France there are both types of trials, but I have never quite understood the circumstances for using a jury or not. I believe that most or all murder trials are by jury. On the other hand, I think that super technical stuff like corporate fraud is by judge, and that makes sense.

[Deleted]

The only time I was ever summoned was the Friday before Katrina hit. I was supposed to report that Monday.
Mr. C. gets summoned quite a bit and has great stories.

[gringalais]

Most people seem to hate jury duty. The hanging around waiting to be told what to do part, was kind of annoying, but seeing the trials was actually kind of interesting.

I am thinking that once I showed up and ended up serving on one jury, I got put in the pool to get summoned more frequently. Where I lived, supposedly, you get a 2 year grace period after being called and showing up (whether you are chosen or not), but I kept getting summons even during that time. Fortunately, the judges gave us letters indicating that we had served, so I just had to send a copy of that to prove I had served recently.

[rikita]

i got a letter some months ago that they consider me for jury duty but i forgot to mail back the letter with the information they required, and so far haven't heard of them again.

[Deleted]

I won the "lucky drawing" of registered voters for possible jury duty a few years ago, but the year passed, and I was never summoned.

[bixaorellana]

I think the logic behind the jury system is great. Whether it plays out in logic and fairness all the time is probably open to question.

Mexico has that terrible judge system, which I find terrifying and corrupt.

[hwinpp]

I've never been called up and to tell you the truth, I wouldn't want some bum having a swing vote on a case concerning me.
Thank God in Germany they have up to three professional judges on the important criminal cases.

Hope I'm correct there, Rikita?

[pookie]

Australia has the jury system.In all my years I have never been called,Mr P has twice,though he has always been challenged. Both times were drug trials,
Our daughter was called when she was just 19 and was accepted.Hers was for a man who was caught grab bing another man by the genitals in a public toilet.The other man just happened to be a police officer. hehe .We have had many laughs about it over the years since

[spindrift]

Last year I was summoned to be a juror on a big murder trial. It is a mistake to say that juries make legal decions. It's entirely the judge who makes the decisions according to the law. The point is that the judge DIRECTS the jury. The jury does not have to decide as the judge directs but in our case we did. It was obvious to eleven of us (out of twelve) that the accused was not guilty because he had acted entirely in self-defence of himself and his property. The case should never have been brought to court as the prosecution hadn't a chance of winning and it was a waste of everyone's time and the state's money. We were scheduled for a 4 week trial but it folded after 3 weeks because of the laughable 'evidence' presented by the prosecution.

Initially I didn't want to serve on a jury, especially for 4 weeks. But I was picked and I had to attend. After a few days a camaraderie developed between us jurors. The case itself was interesting and the process of law was laid out for all to see (and it was just and good). I was surprised to observe this was the case.

Let jurors (in the UK anyway) not be denigrated. They do a great job. It is hard to deceive 12 individuals from all and any walks of life, sitting together, hearing the evidence and making a final decision. From what I observed, my fellow jurors were intelligent and well able to distinguish right from wrong and true from false. We did a fantastic job and gave a man his life back. He was forced to leave the area where he grew up but I wish him well wherever he is.

[Kimby]

I've been called to serve twice, but have never had to actually sit through a trial.

The first time was for a case involving a real estate sale gone bad, and coincidentally, at that very moment my husband and I were contracted to sell our house to the daughter of the attorney representing one of the parties. I was relieved due to a possible conflict of interest. But not without a reprimand from the judge about the possibility of my being found in contempt of court for discussing the case with my husband on the phone during the first break! In my defense, I said that he had not admonished us not to discuss the case, which he doubted, but when he had the court reporter read back the transcript, sure enough, he had forgotten. So I was released and didn't have to go to jail.

The second case was settled before jury selection began, but not until after all the potential jurors had assembled at the courthouse, so we each received a $17 check for showing up.

[gringalais]

Oooh, Kimby 17 bucks! I think when I served the pay was like 5 dollars a day. Neither time did I work at a company that paid for jury duty time. Fortunately, in the first case I was on winter break for grad school. I was only working part-time and the trial was just in the afternoon, so I cold still come in the mornings to work. The second time, I was classified as a manager, and since you are not paid by the hour, if you show up at the office for at least an hour it counted as a day worked. I would check in my boss when we had breaks and came in for a few hours in the afternoon. Both trials were pretty short, at least.

[bjd]

I got a letter last year saying that I was on the list of potential jurors and had completely forgotten about it when on returning home a week ago I found a letter saying I had to go from June 2 to 17. If I don't turn up I have to pay a fine.
I have no idea what kind of court cases require juries in France so I guess I'll find out. If you are missing salaried employment, you get a small amount, and we also get lunch money (15 euros) plus the cost of public transportation. Guess I have to save up my subway tickets!

[Deleted]

Please report back about this, bjd. I was really curious about how it would go if I had been called.

[rikita]

Apr 25, 2009 4:52:16 GMT hwinpp said:

I've never been called up and to tell you the truth, I wouldn't want some bum having a swing vote on a case concerning me.
Thank God in Germany they have up to three professional judges on the important criminal cases.

Hope I'm correct there, Rikita?

actually, i don't know... but i guess you might be...

[bjd]

I looked over the papers I received and it's from the Cour d'Assises:
"A French cour d'assises or Assize Court is a criminal court with original limited jurisdiction to hear cases involving defendants accused of major felonies or indictable offences, or crimes in French, and one of the few to be decided by jury trial. Under French law, a crime is any criminal act punishable by over 10 years of prison."

The Wikipedia article goes on to say that any of the 9 jurors can be refused with no explanation. So maybe I won't have to be there. If I do, I hope it's nothing too gruesome. I'll keep you informed, Kerouac, but that won't be till after mid-June.

[Deleted]

I waited excitedly all year without being called. Meanwhile, my brother in California had jury duty at the Santa Barbara court for various drunk driving cases. In the courtroom next door, Michael Jackson was having one of his numerous trials, and my brother said that the media circus was beyond belief.