Submitted by Jazzlike_Breadfruit9 t3_yk5p5b in Pennsylvania
I was summoned for jury duty for the first time recently. When I reported for duty I was told I would receive $10 for the day, plus travel pay that was another few dollars. My job doesn’t pay you for serving on jury duty so this is all I made that day. Not a huge deal, happy to do my civic duty, until they told us if we were picked we could expect to be there for a week for the trial. 6 days, making only around $70 total. That is a HUGE financial hit for myself and I assume others. 25% of my month’s income gone. Some people need to pay for parking and/ or childcare for days with jury duty as well.
I don’t see how fair representations of the population can be on juries when a lot of us can’t survive with a week of next to no income.
curatedaccount t1_iurehzq wrote
I should tell you that a functionling legal system is so fundamentally important to the survival of our country that you should be willing to make the sacrifice to do your part.
I should tell you that if everyone with something better to do got themselves out of Jury Duty that it would make the entire system untenable and fill juries with the least capable people.
But we both know there are so many asterisks and caveats next to those statements that they're meaningless.
The legal system is clearly broken and the jury system is a failure, don't waste your time and effort trying to help it limp along.
There are a hundred surefire ways to get out of jury duty with no negative consequences, you should take advantage of them.