I've never been called for jury duty, and I doubt I ever will, now that I'm an almost-lawyer. (Lawyers HATE having other lawyers as jurors -- apparently we pay too much attention to the law, go figure!) But yeah, there are definitely certain red flags, just as there are certain traits to look for. The bottom line is, you want to pick jurors who will agree with you. :)

That's kinda what I figured. :) My dad says he's never gotten picked for a jury, either: he was a police officer for ten years, so the defense always vetoes him. Must be nice to have a built-in red flag like that!

I never knew your dad was a cop. Interesting. The only time I got called, about the same thing happened. I don't honestly remember if there was a questionaire to fill out or not. I do remember there were two stages to the pool, where you got asked some elimination stuff, then you'd be sent on to a specific case selection step. same thing with us though. Not a one of the 6 cases seated a jury and I got to work on my free-lance typing I had taken on. So it became a decent income day.

I don't know that I'd ever get seated either though. Too smart for the average defense attorney, too up with people for the man.

I like that: "too smart for the average defense attorney, too up with people for the man." Is that suspicious idealism? Skeptical idealism? I'd say cynical idealism, but for most folks these days, that's just being redundant.

And, yeah, I guess the settling out of court (as the jury is being put together) happens a lot more than people think. Which is awesome for those of us called to jury duty. Bwahahaha.

I've been called for jury duty twice but only served on a jury one of those times. (You know, I'm putting a version of that on my "things I've done" meme.)
The first time I got called for jury duty, I was 19 and as luck would have it, a friend of mine got called the same day. So I had company during the morning and for lunch. But in the afternoon we got called into separate jury pools, and I ended up getting picked for a jury. I thought for sure they'd ask me to leave since I was so young, but no dice. But it was a simple car accident case so it didn't take very long to come to a decision. The judge was very friendly and said that if it ended up taking very long, he'd buy everyone pizza for dinner.

The second time was just a couple years ago, during the summer before I took the bar. I spent the whole time studying and none of the cases that day ended up calling a jury so I got to go home early.

Honestly, I'm not sure if I'll ever end up serving on a jury again. There is no rule as far as I know about lawyers serving on juries, and I'm pretty sure just saying you're a lawyer won't guarantee you an out. In my opinion, it depends on the case as to whether it would be good or bad to have a lawyer on the jury and it depends what kind of law you practice. A lawyer picking a jury only gets so many vetoes that require no explanation and they might not want to waste it on the potential lawyer juror if they can't show cause why the lawyer would be biased. |

And now I'm guessing I've written more about this then anyone actually wants to read. I'm glad you had a good experience though! And I'm glad you didn't get stuck in some murder or products liability trial for weeks!

Aw, I wanted to read it. I value all insight into the lawyerly/juryish world that you can provide. :) If nothing else, it helps me know when to cry fowl when I'm watching lawyerly/juryish TV shows.

Actually, I find the law and all its varied peculiarities kind of fascinating. Not that I want to be a lawyer, but the law strikes me as wonderfully old-fashioned even in its most modern incarnations...there's a sense of Those Who've Come Before that I really like.

Isn't the quote on your icon from Star Trek?

It is Data's definition of friendship. In "Time's Arrow"

Yup. And yup. :) Data's a Ravenpuff! (That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!)