Legal Experts - Jury Service

83BSA said:
Robin -

Not sure your employer can dock your pay for having to attend jury duty. I don't know, but it seems pretty suspect. I'll check and advise you further. In the meantime, get stuff in writing (or at least have your own self-serving confirmations of their requirements) from the bozo's who insist you appear despite your best efforts.

More to follow.

Cheers,

Dave
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Dave

From the Kentucky Court of Justice website:

Will my employer excuse me from work?

Employers, by law, must release someone who has been summonsed to jury service from his or her regular work schedule. Employers are not required, however, to compensate individuals for time spent away from regular employment during jury duty. Jurors are compensated $12.50 per day by the state during jury service.

From the same website:

How does the jury summons process work?

Circuit and district judges in need of jurors notify the chief circuit judge (or his or her designee). This jury administrator then requests a list of prospective jurors from the master list maintained by the AOC. The prospective jurors on the list are mailed a summons requiring them to report for jury service at a specified time and place. State law requires the summons to be issued at least 30 days before jurors are to report for service.

The letter I received didn't have a dated post mark on it, however I'm pretty certain that I got it after November 2nd (I'm due to go tomorrow Dec. 2nd) as I remember talking to the company owner about it around 2 weeks ago.

I really think that no one looked at it properly and to be honest, in the past, when I've spoken to people in places of influence in the local community, members of the Fiscal Court, school board members, even the police, they don't seem to be able to distinguish between a legal resident and a citizen.
 
Just another random factoid on jury pools: in Ohio (and I presume other states as well) they don't have to select from the full pool.

As someone else noted, the statutes usually allow for jurors to be summoned based on drivers license, voter registration, and utilities records - but the statute say "may" not "shall." So they can theoretically pull from JUST registered voters and ignore the BMV and utility records if they want.

It's simpler to pull from 1 database instead of 3, but it also creates a racial imbalance in the juror pool. That has actually been one of the most positive effects I the Obama presidency IMHO. I have no statistics to prove it, but more black voters should have also increased black representation in the jury pool.
 
Robin172 said:
Dave

From the Kentucky Court of Justice website:

Will my employer excuse me from work?

Employers, by law, must release someone who has been summonsed to jury service from his or her regular work schedule. Employers are not required, however, to compensate individuals for time spent away from regular employment during jury duty. Jurors are compensated $12.50 per day by the state during jury service.

From the same website:

How does the jury summons process work?

Circuit and district judges in need of jurors notify the chief circuit judge (or his or her designee). This jury administrator then requests a list of prospective jurors from the master list maintained by the AOC. The prospective jurors on the list are mailed a summons requiring them to report for jury service at a specified time and place. State law requires the summons to be issued at least 30 days before jurors are to report for service.

The letter I received didn't have a dated post mark on it, however I'm pretty certain that I got it after November 2nd (I'm due to go tomorrow Dec. 2nd) as I remember talking to the company owner about it around 2 weeks ago.

I really think that no one looked at it properly and to be honest, in the past, when I've spoken to people in places of influence in the local community, members of the Fiscal Court, school board members, even the police, they don't seem to be able to distinguish between a legal resident and a citizen.
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Are you sure it's a legit summons?
There have been a number of instances of people receiving fake jury duty notices.
The forms are available online. Here's an example.
http://forms.lp.findlaw.com/form/courtforms/state/tn/davidson/tn000001.pdf
 
Yes, they're legit, both on county headed paper and the one I got yesterday came in a county headed envelope.
 
Just walk in & tell them you want to learn all about something you read on the internet called 'Jury Nullification'. You'll be home in time to watch The Price is Right. :D
 
I don't get it ? Why would the jury consist of non-citizens? People that may know nothing about how our system works, the language or local/regional traditions. Not to forget that a non-citizen may not even care what the outcome may be because of their length of stay.
 
trashman_nate said:
I don't get it ? Why would the jury consist of non-citizens? People that may know nothing about how our system works, the language or local/regional traditions. Not to forget that a non-citizen may not even care what the outcome may be because of their length of stay.
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being eligible for the pool doesn't mean you're necessarily qualified to serve on a jury.

it's faster/easier/cheaper for them to summon a bunch of people and let THEM explain that they're not qualified - not do that legwork themselves prior to sending the notice. Government efficiency <eyeroll>
 
Robin172 said:
Yes, they're legit, both on county headed paper and the one I got yesterday came in a county headed envelope.
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Just give them a call and ask if something was overlooked on your response and if you're required to prove you're not a citizen

I got summoned, then wasn't called, then summoned about 3 months later. I called and they went "oops" and sent me confirmation that I had served
 
Dave K said:
First time I got called in it was a murder one trial. I knew the judge, the investigating cops and the lawyers and thought I was out of there in 20 minutes. Shit, the judge addressed me by my childhood nickname. :D When the prosecution said "accepted" I thought "yeah, that was expected." When the defense said "acceptable" I about shat my pretty little preppy pants. :D

The next time I got called, I was was tossed out in about 5 minutes. :D

Shit, I think I've been called 4 or 5 times.
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And what is that nickname? :D
 
Big T said:
Just give them a call and ask if something was overlooked on your response and if you're required to prove you're not a citizen

I got summoned, then wasn't called, then summoned about 3 months later. I called and they went "oops" and sent me confirmation that I had served
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Went to the court today, spoke to the usher who then went to see the court clerk responsible for issuing the jury papers. He came back and said I could leave, my papers had been looked at again by the clerk and she said that she'd missed the box that I'd checked indicating that I wasn't a citizen. No one asked for any proof, the way things work around here I wouldn't be surprised if the Sheriff shows up in a day or two though;)
 
I have gone to the selection process twice, last time was a few months ago. First time, lots of yes's (valid ones) on the questionnaire cut me loose quick. Second time, had high enough number wasn't actually selected for a jury.
 
Robin -

You have a PM with some advice (worth what you paid for it) and some thoughts about how to deal with your employer.

Saw this after I sent the PM - looks like you have it worked out.

Cheers,

Dave

PS - I don't do criminal work . . . when the Sheriff shows up.:D
 
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