Educated at the Dick Wolf School of Law and Order

[mythteller]

My initial feelings of dread were somewhat put to rest when I opened the letter from the Palais de Justice this morning. I've been requested by my local Sheriff's Office to perform my civic duty and take part in a Jury.
I didn't even know Montreal had a Sheriff's Office. I thought Sheriffs only existed in New England towns where Angela Landsbury  keeps turning up while on vacation. Makes me wonder if Tom Bosley is shaking things up with our local boys in blue.

I don't anyone who has ever taken part in a jury, but I do know I should probably bring a book or something else to keep me busy while I wait to enter the courtroom. From what I've heard, there's alot of waiting involved.

I could probably get out of this, but I'm curious about the experience. Any advice to offer?

Comments

[owldaughter.livejournal.com]

We were doing Sleeping Beauty (Aladdin? Beauty & the Beast? One of them, anyway) when I was called for jury duty, and because we couldn't run the financial risk of me not being there at a performance (or the risk of disappointing millions of kidlets!) Wayne wrote a letter outlining the need of having me free, and I was excused.

From what I remember of all my research a decade and a half ago, you do spend a lot of time just sitting there. You're asked questions to ascertain your suitability for being assigned to a jury for any specific case, and you can be passed over due to your opinions or preconceived notions about issues that the case touches upon, or even your lack of appropriate familiarity with whichever language being used. If you're not selected by the time your period is up, then your duty was done just by being there in the pool of potential jury members.

Now, this was fifteenish years ago, and I haven't thought about it since, so I may be misremembering thanks to degrading data storage. YMMV, and things may have changed, too. It would be interesting to hear from someone who had actually gone through it.

[swestrup]

I've been called up for Jury duty three times, but I've only been elected once. Its strange, but no one has ever asked me any questions.

So far, I've just gone and they've called a bunch of names and told the rest to go home. I imagine that it was because they were low-profile cases and didn't really think jury selection was too big an issue.

The one time I served, it was an arson case. I had to get to Jury duty for something like 7:00 am every day (which was a hassle from the west island) but we left at 16:30 sharp. No overtime was actually a bit of a relief at the time.

The one thing I took away from that is that a) you shouldn't hesitate to ask the judge if some point of law is unclear and b) take good notes. There are tapes made of the proceedings, but if you get into an argument in the jury room about some small bit, you can't just listen to an excerpt. You have to listen to the entire days tape!

I seem to recall I was paid some incredibly small pittance to compensate for doing my duty, which involved some minor paperwork. Oh, and there was free coffee and pastries.

Over all, I came away with a new appreciation for Quebec judges, and a new low opinion of Montreal cops.

[un-roseau.livejournal.com]

Je te suggère d'appeler Pat. Il pourra répondre à tes questions. Si tu as besoin de ses coordonnées, je peux te les donner.

Quant à la décision d'y aller ou non... C'est ton choix. Mais je pense que ça vaut la peine d'être vécu au moins une fois.

[concordantnexus.livejournal.com]

I've only been summoned once, at my Mum's in Hull, QC - but she got me off the hook by pointing out that I'd moved to Mississauga, ON the year before. ;)

[lunar-phoenix09.livejournal.com]

Well I have never been summoned so I don't really have anything to say on this matter, but I did want to say Hello.

Greetings from Toronto. Hope all is well. See you Friday night.

Oh and I'll be making a lemon pie, by the way. Hope that's ok. I get home late Thursday so that's about all I'll have time for anyway.

Many hugs!
xoxo

[nathanson1947.livejournal.com]

I remember being summoned for jury duty in the autumn of 2003. There was a lot of waiting involved, although they did serve coffee and a wide variety of pastries. After something like 5 selections, I was eventually called up, asked a few questions, and then rejected by the prosecution. Which was just as well, since it was quite a nasty murder case. I ended up being paid a small amount of money just for being at the selection. And if you are chosen, the payment is now something like $90.00 a day.