Potentially dumb question: anyone ever heard of getting jury duty for two years?

[WilliamPitt]

A good friend just found out, after recieving a seemingly innocuous jury duty summons, that he has been tapped to serve Federal jury duty every Wednesday for two straight years.

I'm flabbergasted.

Mind you, I'm a huge fan of jury duty. The lost time and the boredom and all that isn't bushels of fun, of course - I've been tapped three times in my life for the duty, and each time wound up sitting for eight hours until the pool got sent home, which is a party compared to three days in court listening to a trial between two insurance companies, and that's the deal - but I'm a fan of the obligation. Every voter is a public official, in my opinion, whose job it is to vote in every election and serve on a jury when asked. If you do that, you're a patriot and the backbone of the constitution.

But damn, this is off the grid. I've never heard of anything like this, and I have a fair pile of experience - family and employment - in the legal realm. I *have* heard of three-month jury duty commitments, and I thought those assignments were tough to swallow.

Every Wednesday for two years?

Did I miss a memo? Am I the only one who has never heard of this?

[LeftyMom]

1. I've heard of one year, but even that seems like quite a hardship.

Even if it weren't for the inconvenience, the loss of income would be huge. Jury duty here pays something like $4/day plus free parking or a bus pass.

[WilliamPitt]

4. $40 bucks and free coffee

is the compensation, as I am told.

It's like Reserve duty, i.e. you can't be fired for it. But you're suddenly useless at work on any large project, team project, etc...Jesus, forget promotions, raises and a whole raft of other things. If you took a day off every week from now until 2009, you'd be the office ghost.

I'm astonished.

[SteppingRazor]

2. I almost got picked for a medical malpractice suit...

that would have involved four straight months of jury duty (!)

[matcom]

3. .

[Midlodemocrat]

5. Flabbergasted doesn't begin to describe how I feel about it.

I'm totally sickened.

[Lil Missy]

6. What state is he in?

That seems pretty outrageous to me. I have been tapped twice, and each was for 2 weeks. (Or perhaps a month? It's been so long ...)

[WilliamPitt]

9. Massachusetts

[DemReadingDU]

15. What about the Federal grand jury on the Libby case?

If I can remember, those people met often. And didn't that grand jury last 1 year? plus an extension! Then another grand jury was seated.

[mentalsolstice]

7. Federal Grand jury

Sounds like he's been tapped for federal grand jury duty since he has to go once a week. It's legal to seat these juries for up to 36 months. Here's a helpful site, http://campus.udayton.edu/~grandjur/index.htm.

[Major Hogwash]

8. No. And that sounds extravagant to me.

2 years is way too long.
Maybe a 3 month stint is the norm, I'm not sure, but anything over that seems ridiculous to me.
It creates too much of a hardship on any normal relationship or committment you might have - for example, those who are in the National Guard and having to take off from work for a month or more for summer training.
They would have to take off from work for jury duty, only to be excused from that duty in order to serve their prior committment to the Guard.

[SOteric]

10. Yes Will, you've missed a memo.

Federal Jury duty might not take so long. State and local jury duties might not take so long. But Federal Grand Jury duty does indeed take up that much of a citizen's time. And can, frankly, go on longer if the jurist is seated on a particularly lengthy Grand Jury investigation.

[Breeze54]

11. I think it means they're "ON CALL" for two yrs.

Not sure though.

This page contains information regarding federal jury service at
U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
http://www.mad.uscourts.gov/Juror/Jury.htm

[ScreamingMeemie]

12. No. Here in Michigan we have (it's new) 1 day or one trial...

That's it. That sounds awful.

[reyd reid reed]

16. The federal thing is separate...

We've got the 'one day, one trial' thing in Colorado, too -- but if you get a summons for the federal grand jury up in Denver, that's a whole 'nuther kettle o' fish and you still have to go.

The one day, one trial thing lasts for a year -- if you get called, say, March 26 and then you go home, you can still get called up to Denver on March 27. They're two entirely separate processes.

It sucks.

[ScreamingMeemie]

19. It's across the board here.

[av8rdave]

13. And here I was complaining about getting summoned every two years

like clockwork. I agree that jury duty is an obligation (and a priviledge) of citizenship. It does, however, irk me that nobody else on my street has ever been summoned more than once, and I get it every time as soon as the minimum waiting period expires.

I'm not THAT good of a citizen :)

[sir_captain]

14. What is his actual job?

Any way he can get out of it? I can't imagine, for instance, that a medical professional could be compelled to take a day off every week for 2 years--it would literally destroy his or her career.

[Maddy McCall]

17. Yeah, with local grand juries it's a year. But you don't show up every day.

I'd rather do grand jury for a year or two than regular jury for a month straight.

[merh]

18. That's how long grand juries can last, depending on the

jurisdiction. These type of grand juries are the ones that investigate the big crimes like the Libby lies.