Jury Duty, Hennepin County Style

[pameladean]

Urk. I didn't get to sleep until my usual time, and got up at 6:45. I hope this is all spelled correctly.

Hennepin County keeps you for two weeks. If you are assigned to a trial and complete it within your term, they put you back in the jury pool. If you go through voir dire and are rejected for a trial, they put you back in the jury pool. If you are assigned to a trial and it is cancelled, they put you back in the jury pool.

There are some murky indications that second-week jurors may enjoy undisclosed privileges, but the Policy, the POLICY, is to keep people for two weeks.

They have done their best with the jury room. It's underground, which is unsettling, and it's right under Sixth Street and near the loading dock, so that it is shaken and vibrated and rattled from time to time. If I'd ever been in an earthquake, it would probably freak me out.

The chairs are fairly comfortable, and as long as you write your name on a whiteboard and erase it when you come back, you can go grab food or drink or use the bathroom whenever you like, except when the big red and blue video screen that says, "We are pulling a panel. Do not sign out," is up.

They tell you how many cases they have pending. Today the number went from 64 down to 1, and they sent the much-reduced population of the jury room home half an hour early.

I hope I get more sleep tomorrow. I don't think that I will escape a trial.

P.

Comments

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

Most people settle or plead. My fingers are crossed for you.

[pameladean]

Thanks. I don't want to shirk my duty, but I also really don't do well under stress these days, as my blood pressure the day my mom went into the hospital attests. So I hope to get off lightly. I didn't think I should apply for a medical exemption; it's not that severe a problem.

P.

[sraun]

If it works the same way it did about 2-3 years ago, second week jurors get to be on-call. You call in by such-and-such a time, or have a number they can call you at (I forget which), and you don't have to actually show up. You just have to be able to get there within X period of time.

[pameladean]

They let you sign up for that beforehand, before you are any week at all, but reserve the right to call you in anyway, which is what they did. Since the clerk said that the previous week had been filled up with postponements, this isn't too surprising.

P.

[skzbrust.livejournal.com]

Ugh. They've changed. When I did it, you were told that you were there for two weeks, but in fact I was there for three days, then sent home. What they're doing now is harsh.

"Trial by jury is the paladium of our liberty. I don't know what a paladium is, but it is a good thing, no doubt, in any case." -- Twain

[pameladean]

There are vague hints that they might send people home, but they don't want you to count on it.

Their funding has been cut a lot in the past five years, too, and possibly their case load has gotten higher. If you make people hang around for two weeks, you don't have to process so many new ones.

Mark Twain can be on my jury.

I think.

Well, maybe not.

P.

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

Wow, I much prefer our one-day-or-one-trial system. Hang in there.

[ckd]

We have the same system here. I've been called twice, empaneled neither time.

[kate_nepveu]

Really, I didn't realize *why* Massachusetts would emphasize "one day or one trial" so much until I heard about other states' requirements.

[pameladean]

I was called in Massachusetts many years ago, and I sure do prefer that system.

P.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

The last time I was corralled for a two-week stint I managed to address all my wedding invitations in my best imitation of calligraphy. Then we formed up huge teams to play Trivial Pursuit -- with seven or eight folks on each team, turns lasted a looooong time.

[pameladean]

People were bonding all around me, and I am sure that those not called, if there are any left, will be playing group games by tomrorow. But I am a cranky bear. I expect, once my sleep schedule adjusts, to be able to get writing done, though.

P.

[(Anonymous)]

There's got to be a good story in an underground jury room. Maybe the reason why they're sure to send people home on time is because it's also used by the trolls' judicial system? Or it's one of the entrances to Under the Hill, or maybe an exit from there for those sent into exile. ("I sentence you to roam the halls of the humans' circuit courts forever!")

I assume you're not allowed to bring electronics in, else you might take a laptop and get work done.

[sdorn.livejournal.com]

WHoops -- that "anonymous" was me...

[pameladean]

We can bring electronics in, but I don't have a laptop. I could probably borrow somebody's, but have so far lacked the organization. It's also a pain to have a second bag to take through security if one is empanelled.

They have computers too, and seem to be saying there is dialup, so, again, when I'm awake, in a day or two, I can try that.

P.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Why oh why am *I* never selected???? I *want* to go.

K. [not that it sounds like fun, but it's democracy in its pure form and I want to do my part]

[pameladean]

The clerk said that the program they use for selection is totally random, but that nevertheless some people are never called and others are called every two years like clockwork. Which is what totally random means, I guess, really.

I'm not planning to make any extra effort to be dismissed if I get that far, but I do resent the huge corporate scheduling hell. If they'd let me come in at one p.m. and go home at nine I'd be fine.

P.

Jury Selection

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

"The clerk said that the program they use for selection is totally random..."

It's random based on some pool of input. And for whatever reason, I seem not to be in that pool. I've never been called, no matter where I've lived.

B

Re: Jury Selection

[chaoticgoodnik.livejournal.com]

In most places it's based on whether or not you're on the voting rolls.

Re: Jury Selection

[pameladean]

This is the first time I've been called in Minnesota.

The clerk said that the pool was based on people who had drivers' licenses or Minnesota State I.D. cards and on the voting rolls. She added that they purged duplicates and that you could be called even if you never voted, so don't stop voting, please.

P.

Re: Jury Selection

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

At. That explains it then.

B

[calimac.livejournal.com]

In my county, which is not in Minnesota at all, a juror who wanted off the panel for time pressure reasons was told that she might get reassigned to a longer trial, so sit.

But when I was rejected from the panel, and went as instructed back to the clerk's office for reassignment to another panel, the clerk looked at me oddly and said, "Your service is done. Go home."

[pameladean]

I don't plan to be whiny at them, certainly. I don't envy them their cat-herding job at all.

P.

[noveldevice.livejournal.com]

The last time I was called (two years ago) we got to the "show up at 8am, we're empanelling a jury" part, and then, having shown up at 8, we kicked our heels in the waiting room for three and a half hours while the defendant pled out. Apparently this required that we remain in the waiting room, ready to run into the courtroom chanting "hut! hut! hut!" as an intimidation tactic.

[pameladean]

This is specifically addressed in the Hennepin County jury handbook, which says that the existence of a jury that's ready to go has an impact on people's decisions about settling or pleading out. We were asked to believe that our time was not being wasted. Which I do, really, but that doesn't make it less annoying.

P.

[pariyal.livejournal.com]

<boggling with culture shock>

This is absolutely fascinating for me; I know that jury duty exists, but that's about all I do know. If you have a job, is your employer required to give you paid leave for it? Can you refuse at all? What if you're ill, or about to have a baby, or you have appointments you can't postpone or miss?

[pameladean]

You can get one deferment from your original date, and you get to choose a two-week period any time in the following six months. If that time turns out to be medically impossible or radically inconvenient they will defer you again (but grumbling, I gather). Employers may give you paid leave, but I don't know if they are reqired to do so. They aren't allowed to penalize you, though I'm sure that some try to. That would vary by locality. I am my employer, so I don't really know how that works.

(Where are you?)

P.

[pariyal.livejournal.com]

I'm in the Netherlands; our judges have to do it all by themselves.

And not giving someone paid leave (i.e. letting them pay out of their own pocket) for something they're required by law to do is penalizing them in my book!

[pameladean]

Wow, I hope your judges are sea-green incorruptible.

Hennepin County gives you twenty dollars a day for parking and lunch, and if you can prove "poverty-level financial hardship" because your employer is an evil disgusting jerk, they'll let you off the hook.

P.

[pariyal.livejournal.com]

Wow, I hope your judges are sea-green incorruptible.

Well, yes, I hope so too. I've never been on the receiving end of justice (or indeed either end) myself, but I used to know someone who was studying to be a judge, and the impression I got from her was that there are safeguards in place, though I don't remember now how.

[janetmk.livejournal.com]

This is absolutely fascinating for me; I know that jury duty exists, but that's about all I do know. If you have a job, is your employer required to give you paid leave for it? Can you refuse at all? What if you're ill, or about to have a baby, or you have appointments you can't postpone or miss?

I'm in Washington DC and get called for jury duty like clockwork every two years. It's easy to change the date one time. About 20 years ago the local court system switched from a two-week period of jury duty to the popular one day/one trial. I did a couple of stints under the old system and that's much more disruptive—but hanging around the courthouse and interacting with the other people serving was rather fascinating. Under the one day or one trial system I've served on a couple of juries, lasting 4 or five days each.

Government employees (and there are a lot of them here) are released from work and receive their regular pay while on jury duty. My employer does the same. Jurors whose employers suspend regular pay while they are away on jury duty and those without an employer receive from the court a per diem payment of around $30 (I don't remember the exact amount now).

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

If you do have to go to a trial, you might find it very interesting.

Is this your first time on a jury?

I'd want to be able to take notes. Do they let you?