Jury duty

Joseph……..

“A jury is charged with determining the guilt of the defendant.”

ONLY in criminal trials.

As an attorney I often deal with juries, BUT I don’t do criminal work. The juries in a civil trial determine whether a plaintiff has proven his/her case and is entitled to damages to be made whole. Guilt is not part of the process.

In my experience at New York jury selections, the lawyers for the two sides go to the room with the potential jurors and question them jointly without the presence of any judge. Once the two lawyers agree to a panel of 12 the jury has been selected before any judge saw anything.

Joseph, I haven’t served in a few years, but in my experience, the judge was there when the jurors were being questioned. This was in Queens.

yehudayona: You are correct for criminal cases as jury selection has to be recorded for the official record in case of an appeal. Joseph ix correct for civil cases (at least in Kings County).

Joseph………..

Jurisdictions have different rules. Here in CT Courts, and the Federal Courts as well, the judge is on the bench when the prospective jury panel is brought in. He introduces the case, him/herself, the attorneys, names of plaintiff, defendant, major witnesses and asks if any are known to the prospective jurors. If any raises a hand to say yes, the judge questions the juror candidate to determine whether it is a problem. The judge then lays out the timing of the trial: when it will begin, approximately how many days it will take, whether it might require sequestration. Again if any juror candidate raises a hand stating a conflict, the judges questions and makes a determination. Only then do the attorneys start the voir dire process. The judge often asks questions as well.

Last year, I was called for jury duty. When my group was called before the judge, I did not know the Judge (it was her first case in this district) or attorneys (all were from out of state representing the two corporations in a civil suit). However the judge announced that the trial would start on Tuesday and take three days. I raised my hand to indicate a conflict. The judge asked why and I explained that I was representing a client in a case starting Wednesday in US District Court starting Wednesday. I was immediately excused. It is far easier to get another juror than reschedule a Federal case.

“I raised my hand to indicate a conflict. The judge asked why and I explained that I was representing a client in a case starting Wednesday in US District Court starting Wednesday. I was immediately excused. It is far easier to get another juror than reschedule a Federal case.”

Would a judge similarly be as accommodating in excusing a prospective juror who is a business executive, who will have a scheduling conflict between the pending trial and an upcoming major corporate international deal negotiations where he was the critical negotiator and the deal could fall apart with any postponment?

If “Judge A” would dismiss the attorney with a scheduling conflict, shouldn’t it follow that the same “Judge A” should also dismiss the business negotiator with a scheduling conflict?

So far I’ve seen no disagreements from the attorneys here (or others) that someone seeking to get dismissed, will get dismissed by claiming to be predisposed to find guilt against those accused or being able to use facial expressions to determine the case or being biased against certain ethnicities.

The last case I was on was a civil case and a judge was there. Again, this was a few years ago and it was in Queens. It may have changed, and it may vary by jurisdiction even in the same state.

CTL, how were you allowed on a jury? My understanding was that lawyers do not want anyone who will exercise great influence over the other jurors because of his status and/or who knows too much.

AviK

Lawyers are on juries often in CT. The problem is that some lawyers will tell other jurors their understanding of the law instead of adhering to the judge’s charge to the jury. That said, most lawyers will abide by the rules of impartiality and follow the judge’s jury instructions to the letter.

I don’t do criminal work, but have no problem with lawyers serving on juries in civil cases I’m involved with. I like highly educated jurors far more than those with minimal education who can’t really understand the testimony, exhibits and judge’s charge.

lightbrite>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I keep posting that I do NOT do criminal work. So, the answer is NO. There is no such thing as prosecution in civil trials. The plaintiff (party bringing the suit) and defendant (party being sued) are not prosecutors.

The loser doesn’t go to jail/prison or face fines, and can’t be found guilty

A lot of posters seem to think jury duty is a chore best left to others. But consider this: suppose Jews were exempt – or excluded – from jury duty. That would not be good for the Jews.

So stop looking for ways to weasel out of jury duty. If you have sincere halachic objections, so be it, and do what you have to do to comply with your beliefs. But if your objection is that you don’t want the inconvenience, or the loss of pay (with which I sympathize), please suck it up and participate in an important part of American democracy.

I have been called several times but never was chosen to serve on a jury. (I like to think it’s because I look to smart.) The courts have done a good job of stream-lining the process and waste as little of your time as feasible.

Alot of people dont get paid for more than a few days for Jury duty. for 3 days I dont care as I get paid, but after that it costs me money. Sorry but I cannot live on the $27 a day jury duty pays

ZD – when I was called up, I was told that I wouldn’t get paid at all (maybe some of the transportation costs, I don’t remember exactly), and it would have ending up meaning a tremendous loss of parnassah for me, since I was hired for a subbing job right around the dates when my jury duty was supposed to start, and it wouldn’t have been yashar for me to accept the subbing job knowing that I had jury duty then.

However, Boruch Hashem, I did my research and figured out that I was unlikely to have to go in since I had a high number, so I told the person hiring me about the jury duty but I also told her that I thought it was highly unlikely that I would actually have to go in. She was a bit nervous, but she believed me and gave me the job anyhow, and Boruch Hashem, I turned out to be right!

I don’t think I would have had a choice.

In terms of halachic issues (if that is why you are asking), I didn’t think there were any, since I spoke to several people about doing jury duty, and no one mentioned a halachic issue. In fact, one person told me that her parents volunteered for jury duty. I know her parents – her father taught me, and he was my sister’s B.Y. high school principal, so while he’s not a poseik, he is someone whom I would trust that if he did it, there probably was no halachic problem with it.

And I think there were other people who told me they did it. It is even very possible that I asked a sheilah, but I don’t remember anymore.

I did try to get out of it but they didn’t accept it.

If I hadn’t asked a sheilah initially, I probably would have asked if I were called up l’maaseh. It is possible that the reason I didn’t ask was because I figured out that I wouldn’t be called up anyhow. I no longer remember all my thought processes at the time.

There is no problem with talking about what we were planning to do in a certain situation or even about what we think we would have done.

That is not a contradiction to Hashgacha Pratis. I am talking about what I would have done in a particular situation. How does that contradict Hashgacha Pratis?

CTL, in the case of Jews the wills may not be valid halachically. In such a case there might be a problem a gezel. there might also be an issue of ribbit regarding estate planning. Having non-Jewish juniors do it is not a solution, especially if they are your employees as there might be a rabbinic prohibition of amira l’akum (this does not only apply to Shabbat).

AviK……….

You make problems that don’t exist in my practice. I live in small town America and by far the vast majority of my business (95%+) is with non-Jews. By the time I’m dealing with the will of a deceased Jew it is far too late to consider the question of whether or not it is halachic. The questions before a member of the bar are about it’s validity and legality according to the laws of the state.

My juniors are not employees, they are independent contractors who rent desk space and in exchange for use of the office, secretarial and paralegal staff, supplies and utilities pay us a percentage of their billings. I do not charge them a referral fee for cases I send their way. They do types of work I don’t care to do and it is a service to our clients to have this arrangement.

For example: the grandson of a trust client gets a speeding ticket and needs to be represented in court…not something that I or my family members get involved with…have the juniors handle it and Trust client is happy not to have to search for another attorney. We don’t touch Personal Injury cases. A divorce client has a slip and fall or car accident and calls us, the only attorneys he/she has used as an adult…again the juniors may handle it (if they feel capable and want the case…sometimes they don’t want to finance the costs of a PI case) and refer the case to a specialist.

CTL, we live to make problems. Someone told me that that is the difference between a rosh yeshiva and a rav. The former makes problems and the latter solves them. BTW, you might be interested in a series on the halachic aspects of law practice on the YU site by a rav named Mordechai Torczyner even if none of the pertain to your practice – I presume that you do not have much occasion to deal with bulls that gore cows either).

Lightbrite, I am not accusing him of anything. He mentioned it in connection with the halachic implications of his practice so I commented here. As I do not even know who he is or even exactly where he lives so I have no other forum.