Justice's Guide Dog
Apr. 6th, 2009 02:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluecastleSo 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!!!
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!!!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-04-07 08:49 am (UTC)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!