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Originally Posted by Rapini
If anyone has magic words to get onto a jury, I'd appreciate hearing them. I'm 0-for-3 lifetime. The closest I got was the final peremptory challenge of a federal securities fraud case that was scheduled for a six-week trial. I think that would have been really interesting.
I don't think there is a secret. I have been summoned a half-dozen times or more. My wife has never received a summons and she is furious about it. Go figure.
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If you haven't sat and watched a trial, you're very likely underestimating how boring they can be. I enjoy participating as an advocate, but when I have to sit through proceedings that I'm uninvolved in, I think that most of them are absolute death, and I'm nerdy enough to generally enjoy legal minutiae that many wouldn't.
This.
90% of it is boring af. But there are nuggets where you find them. In one of the cases I was selected for, a former employee was suing a railroad for an injury he sustained while on the job. I learned a lot about how trains are run.
In another case a customer was suing Walmart for an injury sustained inside the store. The highlight was that he was also claiming
loss of consortium. The jury deliberations got very interesting. Moral of the story: do not wish for a jury with lots of old white women for a claim of loss of consortium.
I have been selected for federal and state juries but always civil cases, never a criminal case.