Justice's Guide Dog

[bluecastle]

So I take two days off in order to report for my assigned jury duty, and I come back to an office swamped in work. NO fair!

Jury duty was interesting. It was a civil trial, one of those car accident pain and suffering things. We ended up deciding that since the plaintiff had the burden of proving the case, and they had such a bad lawyer we just couldn't say that their case had any merit. The defense poked enough holes in their story, and the bad lawyer seemed out to sink his client ... so... there will be no reparations for pain and suffering in this case because we just couldn't say that the car accident was the ultimate cause.

(and don't even get me started on the disparaging remarks made by the bad lawyer about the defense's expert -- a big city doctor -- who couldn't be trusted as a "real" doctor because he gets paid to give his opinions on medical cases and makes $250,000 a year. Apparently an education and skills are things that make people untrustworthy??? I might have expected that attitude from the plaintiffs who live on a mountaintop and had a certain sulleness that you get sometimes from the "havenots" towards the "haves" ... but for the lawyer to use that as very nearly his sole defense? A bad cess on the bad lawyer!!)

Also, we all agreed that if we ever needed an attorney, we would be calling the defense's lawyer. She was sharp! (And subpoena happy)

So, two days off work, a forthcoming check for $9.00 a day from the county for my services, a free lunch while we deliberated, and all the free coffee and Lance peanut butter crackers we could eat during the trial proper... and we kept the wheels of justice turning.

And now back to trying to dig towards the surface of my desk!!!

Comments

[verasteine.livejournal.com]

I'm fascinated. On so many levels. I have a law degree, but we don't have juries. You only get nine dollars a day for something like that? Surely that doesn't cover your expenses?

And something I've always wanted to ask: did the legal system seem clear to you, as a juror? Were there things you found difficult or wished they didn't send you out of the room for?

And now I'll stop trying to pick your brain... Sorry!

[valancy-joy.livejournal.com]

I don't mind having my brain picked :0)

Firstly, I'm not sure what other employers do, but mine pays me my regular daily $$ minus the nine bucks. So it ends up being just the same as if you went to work that day.

as for the legal system itself... on a purely edumacational, philosophical way I would have loved to have heard what the lawyers were arguing about. We got sent out of the room a lot. But it was pretty clear what and how we were supposed to view things when it came to our deliberations. The judge gave us a rather lengthy rundown of the legal background and then sent us off to talk.

If we had been unsure of anything, we just had to send the judge a note and ask for clarification and he would have given us the law bits again.

I got the sense that in this particular case, which they had been lawyering over since it was first filed in 2005 that they had pretty much managed to rule out any issues except one specific injury. We kept being told what to ignore from the videotaped depositions of the doctors that we viewed.

I'd have loved to known the ins and out that were argued over on this, but they were doing everything they could to keep from giving us information they didn't think we needed to know.

The kid got off a bit lighter than maybe he should have, but the bad lawyer was so bad we couldn't say that he'd proved ANYTHING to us. So even if we'd thought that he should have been ruled negligent for causing the accident, there was still no evidence that the medical conditions that were being discussed had been caused by that one event.

And after we rendered our verdict, the judge did come back into the jury room and ask us if we had any additional questions. (He wouldn't say which way he would have ruled :0) we asked!

[verasteine.livejournal.com]

Sounds like the system worked the way it should. Pity one side had such a bad lawyer though!

I've always stared at jury systems in strange fascination, because they are so alien to us. I've always questioned juries' abilities to really ignore what they're told to ignore, but you seemed to have had no problem with that. It's interesting, thanks for answering my questions!