Jury Duty

[cyberpaladin85]

Today, I need to check in with the legal system to see about my jury summons. Damn current legal system, punishing innocent citizens by giving them jury duty! They really need to get professionals to do those kinds of jobs, not conscripted people who have things to do.

[cyberpaladin85]

Whew! They don't need me for jury service after all.

;D

[Steedo]

I thought about this too, but who would pay? Would it apply to both civil and criminal trials? Paying by the hour encourages the jury to slow the proccess down, but paying by the trial encourages the professional jurors to react quickly and hastily. How would you ensure thier neutrality and anonymity if they are professionals? How do you avoid a situation where activists recruit to fill the ranks of the jury pool to tilt the balance to their way of thinking?

It's of course unfair to force the defendant to pay for the jury, since the rarely would have chosen tor the trial to take place and may not be in a position to afford it(we don't even expend defendants to pay for thier lawyers). You either have place the burden on the plaintiff / prosecution, in which case the burden for someone to address greivances is largely prohibited for everyone but large corporations or tax everyone to pay for the jury(like we do for judges)... Now you are still being punished financially, but you are free from having to sully yourself with thoughts of justice, fairness, guilt, culpability and freedom.

Actually... I would support super-progressive tax on trial lawyer fees and awards to pay for a volunteer army of jurors. I wonder though, would it be enough to attract our best and brightest minds or would we be judged by a jury of trailer trash.