Jury Duty

[norsemen]

I have served on a county and federal jury. If you have the time I'd recommend serving as it was an educational experience. The federal trial dealt with child pornography and was quite intense. The defense lawyer kept trying to bring Russian organized crime into the discussion but got shut down. Jury selection brings in a wide variety of folk and it was interesting to see how others think and come to decisions.

 

[swiacy]

I got selected and was in the pool being questioned. The dispute was between two farmers over location of a property line. The attorney asked me if I could be impartial and I said yes. He asked if I knew either one and I said yes, they live on farms on both side of me, I was immediately excused. It was interesting but not a Grand jury.

 

[wintersmd]

Not Jury Duty but I get to go to court to testify in a divorce Wednesday. Husband and wife are both clients and business owners, really contentious divorce that they have both spent waaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy to much money on. Me having to testify is stupid because everything I am going to testify to is on their tax returns and business financial statements.

can you charge them for your service during the court appearance? I would think that you could.

 

[1SEIACLONE]

can you charge them for your service during the court appearance? I would think that you could.

You get paid so much for jury duty per day and if you are a set amount of miles away they will pay your milage for you trip to the courthouse.

 

[fcclone]

I was called to grand jury a couple of decades ago. The paperwork said that I had to serve for an entire year. When I was called in I had to figure out how I could get out of serving an entire year. Another individual in the jury pool was thinking the same thing and asked the judge on average how many times did they think we would get called to serve. The judge announced, keep in mind I lived in a small populated county, that the grand jury hadn’t convened in five decades.

I wasn’t called to serve that year but one of the archaic county laws was that the grand jury had a duty to inspect the county jail every year. I had no clue what we were looking for.

 

[BCClone]

can you charge them for your service during the court appearance? I would think that you could.

Yes, whatever your going rate is.

 

[CloneLawman]

can you charge them for your service during the court appearance? I would think that you could.

Hell yeah!

 

[CloneLawman]

You get paid so much for jury duty per day and if you are a set amount of miles away they will pay your milage for you trip to the courthouse.

Yes, but they're discussing an expert witness. Not a juror.

 

[wintersmd]

Yes, but they're discussing an expert witness. Not a juror.

that was my thoughts as well.

 

[CloneLawman]

Not Jury Duty but I get to go to court to testify in a divorce Wednesday. Husband and wife are both clients and business owners, really contentious divorce that they have both spent waaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy to much money on. Me having to testify is stupid because everything I am going to testify to is on their tax returns and business financial statements.

True, but they can't cross-examine a piece of paper (or otherwise question). They're making a record for potential appeals as well as getting set to spin for their client. And depending on the judge, there may be need for explanation!

 

[aauummm]

I got on the list for a civil trial. The 60+ year old guy (non English speaking) had filed a lawsuit against his doctors and a translator company. Seems as though he had gone into the hospital for an intended circumcision and came out with a vasectomy!

I had to laugh to myself and said to myself that I had to get out of this one. When the lawyer for the guy asked me if I had any preconceived notions regarding this type of case, I said yes! I started to explain my attitude about frivolous lawsuits when the judge interrupted me and said that she could kind of guess where my comments were headed.

She then cleared the courtroom except for the guy and all of the doctors and lawyers, etc. I then got to give my speech on how frivolous lawsuits and judgements were jacking up the cost of personal liability insurance for professionals.

I was not selected for the jury for that case. I wasn't called up for any other cases and my time in the jury pool ended without incident.

 

[IcSyU]

True, but they can't cross-examine a piece of paper (or otherwise question). They're making a record for potential appeals as well as getting set to spin for their client. And depending on the judge, there may be need for explanation!

And asking the "Are you aware of any cash that may not be reported on these tax returns?"

 

[Pat]

And asking the "Are you aware of any cash that may not be reported on these tax returns?"

 

[motorcy90]

Have only been called for it once by mail, sent in my orders I was stationed out of state to be removed and haven't seen any others since.

 

[MartyFine]

Just remember there is always insurance (insurance companies made sure the rules of evidence prevent jurors from having this information)

 

[madguy30]

Took this long?

(I hardly remember the movie)

 

[AgronAlum]

 

[isufbcurt]

can you charge them for your service during the court appearance? I would think that you could.

Hell yes I can and I am.

I told them at the beginning if they thought their attorney fees were high, wait til they see my bill if I have to get involved.

 

[isufbcurt]

And asking the "Are you aware of any cash that may not be reported on these tax returns?"

That's one of the questions on the list of questions they gave me. And my answer is "My accounting is based on the information provided by management and the bank statements. If cash was received, not deposited in the bank account and not reported to me I would have no idea it existed."

Essentially the husband is trying to say he makes less than he does and the wife is trying to say he makes more than is reported. And vice versa.

Plus the wife hired someone to do a valuation on the husband's business and I have no idea where he is getting some of the numbers on that.

 

[IcSyU]

That's one of the questions on the list of questions they gave me. And my answer is "My accounting is based on the information provided by management and the bank statements. If cash was received, not deposited in the bank account and not reported to me I would have no idea it existed."

Essentially the husband is trying to say he makes less than he does and the wife is trying to say he makes more than is reported. And vice versa.

Plus the wife hired someone to do a valuation on the husband's business and I have no idea where he is getting some of the numbers on that.

You know as well as I do the majority of valuations are complete and total ********. Someone said "I want X" and the person doing the valuation just looked for things which support a way to get to X or plug the discount with some BS to lower to X.

It's no different than a lot of house appraisals. The appraiser goes "what does it need to appraise for?"
"X."
"OK, I can work with that."

Magically the appraisal comes in right around X.