Has anyone been subpoenaed to serve on or has actually served jury duty? What was your experience like? Did you make an excuse to get out of it?
I’ve been fortunate to be exempt because of my legal background, but my mum just got called to attend and she’s not a happy camper 
Re: Jury Duty
I have been called a couple of times but always get away with it because of school............my cousin happened to go pretty far into the process and almost got picked but when she found out what it was about (it was a rape case) she wanted to get out.............she said a few weird remarks and made a few judgmental statements so she was booted out.........
Re: Jury Duty
my friend was in the jury once.. it was a physical assault case between two prison inmates… she was scared because the inmates were quite scary! 
But she sat through it all so fair play to her!
We also received courtroom training as part of our forensic coursework and we had to present our testimony infront of a real defence lawyer and jeeeeeeeezzzzzzzz it was a nerve wracking experience!!! She tried to prove us dumb in every way she could! One of my friends had a stabbing case to work on so that involved blood… she said she saw “red stains” on the suspect’s shirt… the lawyer laughed her head off and said “so 6 months old stains were RED?!” … and my friend started crying!! awww! 
I also messed up once while giving my testimony (i had a burglary case) and I said such-and-such evidence places the suspect on the scene 
and I wasn’t supposed to say that coz its like accusing the suspect… She gave me this really weird look and said “this isn’t for u to decide” … i was like ermm yeah.. sorry… 
later on she told me that if this was a real court case, I would’ve been disqualified as an expert witness and my testimony would have been disregarded because I was accusing the suspect, lol!
Re: Jury Duty
Just out of interest, how are you exempt from jury duty by being in the legal profession? I'm a solicitor and can still get called for jury duty. It did used to be the case that legal professionals were exempt but that changed a few years ago.
Anyway, back to your mum's dilemma. The best way to get out of it is to say that you have a sick relative (immediate family member) in pak and may have to fly there on very short notice. Your mum might not get excused altogether but it'll stop her from being put on any long trials. It's dishonest I know, but it depends on how badly she wants to avoid the tediousness of jury service.
Re: Jury Duty
ps) the above advice is assuming that you are in the UK. If not, then apologies and please disregard the post :)
Re: Jury Duty
I've been called up a couple of times but got excused cos of uni. It would be quite interesting to do it though.
Re: Jury Duty
I had jury service last week! it was the first time i'd been summoned (im in the UK) and i was a little nervous but my sister had it last year and told me a little of what to expect.
my first day was cancelled lol. the second day after sitting around for three hours in the jurors sitting area many of us were told there were no more cases that day and to go home. the third day i got picked along with 14 other people. we were then taken into court where just 12 of us were selected, myself included. the case was a sexual assault case. we listened to the victim give evidence and then after lunch a witness. after 2 hours we were dismissed for the day which was a relief cos id started to space out a little lol and was finding it hard to concentrate,some of the other jurors were too.
the next day we went to the deliberating room and were discussing the case waiting to go back into court. We went back in and the judge told us that the case was being thrown out as there was too much contradicting evidence lol. a little disappointing.
the fifth day after sitting around for 3 hours, i and many other people were told our service had ended.
on a whole it was definietly an interesting experience but im glad it ended when it did cos most of the time we were just sitting around bored.
Re: Jury Duty
Just out of interest, how are you exempt from jury duty by being in the legal profession? I'm a solicitor and can still get called for jury duty. It did used to be the case that legal professionals were exempt but that changed a few years ago.
Anyway, back to your mum's dilemma. The best way to get out of it is to say that you have a sick relative (immediate family member) in pak and may have to fly there on very short notice. Your mum might not get excused altogether but it'll stop her from being put on any long trials. It's dishonest I know, but it depends on how badly she wants to avoid the tediousness of jury service.
I live in Canada and there's a specific exemption for judges, lawyers and students-at-law (in my province at least). The legal training for this group gives them an unfair advantage when hearing a case that may bias them in rendering a verdict, or so I've been made to understand. I've been sent a letter twice and both times was exempt after providing information on my background.
Re: Jury Duty
Sehrysh, just ask your mom to give some excuse and get out of it! its just a fuzool experience that she'll definitely not enjoy. Better to avoid it!