Got a letter in the mail saying I have jury duty. I know absolutely next to nothing about this, never done anything like this before. Any beginner tips from anyone here?
Bring your laptop. In San Antonio/Bexar County, the main courtroom, where all of the jurors selected for that day for the all the new trials at the courthouse waited, had free wi-fi. The case I was selected for reached a last minute plea deal while we were waiting outside the courtroom.
If you have a job, enjoy a day away from work. I read like half a book and browsed Twitter/Facebook all day. It was great.
Harris County does it really well in their new building. It is well organized, just show up at the address (the building is actually underground) and follow the signs and directions from the many employees. Once signed in, you'll head to a large auditorium and wait. How long you wait is a crapshoot depending on case load for that day - but be prepared to wait at least 2-3 hours and if you're not selected you can go home. As others have said, bring something to keep you busy like a book, magazine(s), Kindle, iPad, etc. I wouldn't bring headphones personally, you may be able to get away with having one earbud in - but if you bring big headphones like Beats, you may get chastised. If they call your number and you don't hear it, you could be stuck there all day. As far as dress goes, you can wear just about whatever you want - but if you are picked you don't want to be called out by the judge for being a slob. I wear khaki's and a polo when I go. Could get away with jeans as well, but shorts are prohibited.
Harris County does Jury Duty like it is the dark ages still? Do they have an online registration system where you can be assigned to your court ahead of time and don't have to show up to be directed from a general pool of people? To me, that was the worst part in the past...was all the waiting around with about 1000 other people to be assigned to your court and them calling out individual assignments one by one. The sooner you get to your court assignment...the sooner it can be over with and not waste your time. It sounds like Harris County needs to check out what Tarrant County is doing. The last time I was requested for jury duty...I deferred to another date online. Then, I waited till a few business days before to sign up to request my assignment. By that time, they didn't need anyone as the slots were already filled and I was excused having never left to go anywhere. So, at least in my experience, there is something to be said for deferring and waiting to sign up using online enrollment. It worked in my favor to defer and be late to the party.
I was subpoenaed as a witness recently but couldn't make it. ******* hit my truck with his car, got a ticket, then challenged the ticket. He was going to make me take off from work and drive downtown just to say "yes that's the dumbass that hit me and put my truck in the shop for 2 weeks." I would have gone, too, but had a family thing come up. Not sure if it the judge decided to reschedule the hearing or not since I was the star witness. Never been in a jury though
Yeah, bring a computer or book and speak up in the courtroom if you don't want to get selected. The closer you are to the front (1-30 lets say) the more you'll want to speak up if you want to get off and go home. If you want to get picked just keep your mouth closed and smile like you have no brain.
Lol. Didn't realize that was a big deal. I got picked for jury duty when I was in Austin during spring semester so I couldn't come, but if I had I was fully intending to show up in some Jordans and basketball shorts lol.
Maybe the logistics are different since Harris County is 2.5 times bigger and presumably has a larger case load? They don't know what courts are going to need jurors before hand. And there's probably no place to house potential jurors at each individual courthouse. Keeping all the jurors at a central location and calling/releasing them as needed makes sense. And it would seem to me that if they if sent a different jury pool to each individual courthouse, you'd actually need to call more jurors overall to cover the potential case load. Whereas if they're all one big group that's available to go to any courthouse, you can reduce that number a bit. They don't call out juror numbers one by one. They call out a range of numbers. They've been doing that for at least 15 years, since I started being called for jury duty. Besides, Houston just built a new jury assembly building that connects to all the courthouses via underground tunnels. They're not going to redo their system. And it's not one big room anymore, they've divided it into 4 smaller rooms. It's kind of like a college lecture hall.
He probably got off. No witness, no case. A couple of years ago, I was driving home (from jury duty) when a car tried to cross the street in front of me when he didn't have time/room. I T-boned him because I couldn't stop in time. It was his fault. Cops gave him a ticket. He also didn't have a license or insurance. I got subpoenaed to appear in court. When I showed up, he settled the case and I got to go home (probably 9 or 10 AM). People will often take a case to trial just hoping the witness doesn't show up and the case will be dismissed. If the witness shows up then they make a deal.
It isn't bad, reception was awful on my phone when I went last year(should have brought a book). Most people are out in a few hours. I was unlucky and my number was 8 and they pulled about 40 of us to the courtroom. The case was felony domestic violence. As we were standing outside they said the defendant pleaded out so we were all dismissed. Was out of there at about 11am.
I think there were other witnesses too. He hit my (stopped) truck at a fairly high speed and moved me forward several feet so that I tapped the car in front of me. I think the two men in the car in front of me were subpoenaed as well, but I don't know if they made it. We'll see. Hoping to hear back from the prosecutor today.
I wore shorts, and was sent home. I was also laughed at by the whole room but I got the last laugh when I got a phone call telling me I was not needed to return.
Ive never been called, but one ofy best friends got called ahortly after his 18th birthday and ended up being the jury foreman. He enjoyed it because he's into that sort of stuff and got paid; but it probably sucks.
