[eremite06]

Originally Posted by Taltarzac725

Yes. You can be excused if over the age of 70. It is your choice. There is also an excuse if you are taking care of someone who cannot take care of themselves due to some kind of disability.

I will have to send the Clerk of Court some more e-mails about important legal developments in my neighborhood. Many Lynnhaven people would know what I am talking about here as would a large number of Villagers. It is kind of a private matter though made that way by the people involved.

Do tell....what legal developments in Lynnhaven? You can PM me.

[Topspinmo]

I thought all lawyers, doctors, and law enforce got out of jury duty?

[manaboutown]

Originally Posted by Topspinmo

I thought all lawyers, doctors, and law enforce got out of jury duty?

Not necessarily. In NM not only lawyers but judges can serve on juries. My guess is this harkens back to sparsely populated rural times. When attorneys show up for jury duty as they must, the trial counsel invariably dismiss them during voire dire.

One time I was called to jury duty in a relatively small town and was not dismissed until the final cut. The defense counsel for Volkswagen was furious at me and asked why I had not announced I was an attorney. He was quite a jerk so I stood up and stated that I had put it on my form which he obviously had read only belatedly. That was the way it was done. This guy really was obnoxious. I hope VW got rid of him before the actual trial started as my fellow juror candidates did not like him at all!

[Taltarzac725]

Originally Posted by manaboutown

Not necessarily. In NM not only lawyers but judges can serve on juries. My guess is this harkens back to sparsely populated rural times. When attorneys show up for jury duty as they must, the trial counsel invariably dismiss them during voire dire.

One time I was called to jury duty in a relatively small town and was not dismissed until the final cut. The defense counsel for Volkswagen was furious at me and asked why I had not announced I was an attorney. He was quite a jerk so I stood up and stated that I had put it on my form which he obviously had read only belatedly. That was the way it was done. This guy really was obnoxious. I hope VW got rid of him before the actual trial started as my fellow juror candidates did not like him at all!

I have met a lot of attorneys who seem like real jerks. There are some really good ones though. My parents used to play bridge with Mills Lane and his wife in Reno, Nevada. He seemed OK and helped me with stuff when he was still mentally lucid. Had a stroke a few years ago.

[Taltarzac725]

My Godfather is a still practicing WI lawyer and we had a neighbor in Reno, Nevada across the street who was the foreman of the Grand Jury for a long time and another neighbor who was a National Guard fighter pilot/law professor/lawyer who would become an Air Force General at the Pentagon. I heard some very wild stories about him.

I do hope they look into what I wrote them in the e-mail. It should be very interesting for them. And that includes taking a look at my Internet foot prints I made since 1999 or so. Some of this has been on Talk of the Villages since I came on here in July of 2007.

[valuemkt]

Many of my calls to jury duty involved lawsuits against insurance companies or businesses. If I was called as part of an actual jury selection, I always made sure my thoughts were known about stupid people spilling coffee on themselves deserve to be discomforted or people faking falls in stores or parking lots deserve to be locked up for lying .. Never did get selected for any of those civil cases.

[Taltarzac725]

Originally Posted by valuemkt

Many of my calls to jury duty involved lawsuits against insurance companies or businesses. If I was called as part of an actual jury selection, I always made sure my thoughts were known about stupid people spilling coffee on themselves deserve to be discomforted or people faking falls in stores or parking lots deserve to be locked up for lying .. Never did get selected for any of those civil cases.

Most of the cases I have been involved in as a potential juror have been criminal.

The only civil one was the Federal employment discrimination case against the Claremont Police Department and that City. And they chose a retired CIA supervisor to be Jury Foreman so I watched what I said when questioned by the Judge. Some of my answers to questions can get very involved.

[thetruth]

Originally Posted by Taltarzac725

They can come down pretty hard on those not responding either coming in or sending in the request to be excused form. I went down there in May 2014 after sending them some e-mails as not to blindside them about stuff after my April Jury Summons in 2014. Had a Federal Court Jury Summons in 2009 or so in Ocala. The judge dismissed me as he thought I was hiding something. The case was alleged employment discrimination based on race against a Hispanic cop in the Claremont Police Department who wanted to write reports in Spanish and other matters. I was sitting between two extremely attractive women so I did want to stay on the jury but had trouble answering the questions with simple answers. My life is nothing but complicated as far as my connections to the legal system is concerned. And even more complicated now in 2018.

I could write a thousand page book on my complicated connections with the legal system.

The Federal Jury found for the defendant Police Department and the City of Claremont but the Judge's written decision was a bit abrasive on the employers if memory serves.

The case in 2014 was some kind of vehicular homicide that would have taken up 16 weeks of jury time according to the Sumter County Judge who dismissed all in the Jury Pool after the lawyers convinced the defendant to plead guilty without a trial.

Pinellas County, FL Judge dismissed me when I said I had a law degree around 2004.

Sonoma County Prosecutor dismissed me in 1994 when I told them about my work with victims of crimes and materials in law libraries for them. The Judge said he had seen me hanging around the Sonoma County Law Library in Santa Rosa, California. I hung out in a lot of law libraries in the 1990s.

I had had a Sumter County Jury Summons around 2006 when I wrote them with some excuse about doing legal work. They accepted it. It was volunteer work but still work as in very stressful and taxing.

I see a lot of merit to the English sytem. Trial is in front of a judge not a group whose qualification is that the CHOOSE to honor their duty or can't generate an acceptable excuse to get out of it. Service on a jury WILL/MUST destroy any faith in our legal system that has remained after life experience.
I would hope a judge will not be as influenced by such thoughts as it is a huge company they can afford to pay the XXXXXXX for their own cause of their own damages.
If, you are paying your atty $300 an hour and do not recover court costs, you can win and still end up with a financial loss.

[Schaumburger]

I have actually served on a jury just once around 1991 or 1992. A civil case which lasted 3 weeks. My manager at the time was not very happy about this, but I received my full salary. A few years ago my former employer changed the jury duty policy to pay employees for only the first 5 days of jury duty. If the trial lasted longer than five days, an employee had to use their vacation time or or take those days unpaid.

One thing that struck me about jury duty, the judge is the boss. He/she says what time is lunch, what time to return from lunch and what time the court is done for the day. If you are a juror, there's no saying, "Hey it's 5:00, I'm outta here."

[Taltarzac725]

Originally Posted by Schaumburger

I have actually served on a jury just once around 1991 or 1992. A civil case which lasted 3 weeks. My manager at the time was not very happy about this, but I received my full salary. A few years ago my former employer changed the jury duty policy to pay employees for only the first 5 days of jury duty. If the trial lasted longer than five days, an employee had to use their vacation time or or take those days unpaid.

One thing that struck me about jury duty, the judge is the boss. He/she says what time is lunch, what time to return from lunch and what time the court is done for the day. If you are a juror, there's no saying, "Hey it's 5:00, I'm outta here."

It will be interesting to see what will happen. I could confuse the hell out of fellow potential jurors depending on what the judge or lawyer asks about me. I wanted to give the Clerk of the Court a heads up. Things are even stranger in 2018 than they were in 2014 in Bushnell and quite a lot more than Ocala Federal Court in early 2009. It could have been 2010 up there.

I did write about in on Talk of the Villages. Both for 2014 and 2009-2010.

[Schaumburger]

Originally Posted by Taltarzac725

It will be interesting to see what will happen. I could confuse the hell out of fellow potential jurors depending on what the judge or lawyer asks about me. I wanted to give the Clerk of the Court a heads up. Things are even stranger in 2018 than they were in 2014 in Bushnell and quite a lot more than Ocala Federal Court in early 2009. It could have been 2010 up there.

I did write about in on Talk of the Villages. Both for 2014 and 2009-2010.

Just don't spend your jury duty pay in one place. Where I reside in Cook County, Illinois, jurors get $17.20 per day. That is the same amount I received in the early 1990's when I served on the jury duty for 3 weeks. No one gets rich serving on a jury.

Could not imagine having to serve as a juror for multi-month long trial like the O.J. Simpson trial.

[Taltarzac725]

Originally Posted by Schaumburger

Just don't spend your jury duty pay in one place. Where I reside in Cook County, Illinois, jurors get $17.20 per day. That is the same amount I received in the early 1990's when I served on the jury duty for 3 weeks. No one gets rich serving on a jury.

Could not imagine having to serve as a juror for multi-month long trial like the O.J. Simpson trial.

I believe it is $15.00 per day unless you are off of work with pay then it is nothing for the first few days. This is for Sumter County.

I doubt if they will want me on the Jury with all my baggage as I have some kind of connection to just about every kind of case that might come up. Lots of interactions with survivors of crimes from February 25, 1976 onward, some with inmates and ex-inmates, more with insurance claims people through father, others through various first responders among relatives, etc. My Uncle Alvin was the Itasca Fire Chief in 1979 when Flight 191 went down and he told me about his memories responding to that with his people. Very traumatic for these people.

[Taltarzac725]

Originally Posted by Taltarzac725

I believe it is $15.00 per day unless you are off of work with pay then it is nothing for the first few days. This is for Sumter County.

I doubt if they will want me on the Jury with all my baggage as I have some kind of connection to just about every kind of case that might come up. Lots of interactions with survivors of crimes from February 25, 1976 onward, some with inmates and ex-inmates, more with insurance claims people through father, others through various first responders among relatives, etc. My Uncle Alvin was the Itasca Fire Chief in 1979 when Flight 191 went down and he told me about his memories responding to that with his people. Very traumatic for these people.

Got a call from the Clerk of the Court or her agent telling me that the Judge or a Judge down there had OKed my request to be excused for Jury Service due to what I had written them.

That is a weight off my shoulders. I just wrote basically that I am the primary care taker of my senior parents both of whom need the help at times. I have really not been anywhere since a week in the DC area in 2015. I do need to be around except for a few hour breaks here and there.

I would have liked to have served as serving on a Jury is a real duty of a citizen IMHO and a safeguard on our liberties to actually have juries even if some of the decisions made by them have you really questioning just how logical people are and/or are able to be sold a very questionable story by some lawyer(s).

I probably would have been bumped as soon as I started talking about my law degree and how I have used it since 1991 and it would have confused the hell out of the potential jurors. And it is even more complicated since Valentine's Day of 2018.

I could have told them about the 1983 Slide Mountain (near Lake Tahoe, NV/CA) mudslide on Memorial Day which occurred a 1/2 mile or so where I was working my last day at a food service concern at Bower's Mansion and where my Dad later handled the insurance claims of some of the homes destroyed by that massive slide. I have many stories like this of misadventures involving the legal system and my being somehow connected to them.

Then there are those 40 or so cases I was involved with as a Student and then Student Director at Legal Assistance to Minnesota Prisoners in the Summer of 1987 through early May of 1989. This was while I was a student at the U of Minnesota Law School. Many of these 40 cases had been covered by various Minnesota newspapers. I mean the matters that put these people in prison not the quite mundane legal matters us law students and our supervising lawyers dealt with.

And then my trip to Reno, Nevada in the Summer of 1989 as the cataloger of all the computer files on WESTLAW during the American Association of Law Libraries convention and how this return to the town I had grown up in brought back all kinds of memories. Including the 1983 Memorial Day mudslide and many other events worthy of various newspaper articles. Happy Birthday to me.

[ColdNoMore]

Originally Posted by Taltarzac725

Got a call from the Clerk of the Court or her agent telling me that the Judge or a Judge down there had OKed my request to be excused for Jury Service.....

Justice has been served.

[Taltarzac725]

Originally Posted by ColdNoMore

Justice has been served.

Actually it has as if people in the future want to see what I wrote the Clerk of Court in Sumter County it should be a matter of public record.

And I do hope that they are still keeping track of my internet footprint as I had requested them to do. Especially the one on Facebook.

I could have told the potential jurors about Harvey Wagon Wheel's bombing which my Dad also covered and my very educational encounter with that hotel security's team. He took me along to that insurance claim like he did to a few other ones. Quite a lot of legal stuff in that bombing if I remember correctly. Harvey's Resort Hotel bombing - Wikipedia Photos: Slide Mountain disaster, Memorial Day 1983