Jury Duty

[Mags 112]

When I worked for the NHS in the UK one of my colleagues got called for jury duty. It lasted a month. Not only did he get a full wage from the NHS, he also got around 50 quid a day from the courts for his time. On top of that he got travel expenses. He came out of there a bit richer and quite happy. It was an Old Bailey case though, so don't know if that is why he did so well....

But it is standard with the majority of above board employers in the UK to pay you during jury duty. Not bad really....

[athena_ny 1]

Well, at my job we don't get paid if we have jury duty unless we take vacation time.

I thought that was illegal? Dont they have to pay you?

I thought that too so I contacted the state and they told me that if a place is privately own (the doc I work for owns all his clinics) then they can more less make up their own rules.

My mom just had jury duty and even though she got paid for it from her employer, the judge said if 40 dollars a day (from the govt for the services) was too little, to let them know and you'd be excused. This was in a murder trial.

[PaulineA 1]

I had jury duty in the UK. I got a choice of getting paid by the court, or from my employer. So, I chose to get paid throught the company I worked for. It was in a high court, in Scotland, and lasted 11 days. Also got free lunch every day, and paid traveling expenses.

[Mrs. M. 0]

You need to be a USC to serve on a jury correct?

Yes Jury duty and voting are for USC's only.

Sorry to burst your bubble....

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/men...00045f3d6a1RCRD

Permanent Residents can vote.... DH has a voters registration card!!!!

[Kathryn41 3,205]

You need to be a USC to serve on a jury correct?

Yes Jury duty and voting are for USC's only.

Sorry to burst your bubble....

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/men...00045f3d6a1RCRD

Permanent Residents can vote.... DH has a voters registration card!!!!

Have you ever tried to find an election - even at the State and local level - that doesn't require you to be a US citizen? I have - there are not any in our area. US Citizenship is a requirement even at the local level. Be very careful about registering to vote if you are a permanent resident.

[Mephibosheth 0]

I was a student in Chicago 1999-2001... when I was back in Germany, my college forwarded mail to me. I still got jury duty notices. It's a violation not to respond, and even though I was in a country far away, I wanted to keep the American law happy in case I wanted to return. I guess you get into the system when you apply for a Driver's Liscence or state ID and they don't ask if you're a USC or not. Getting off of that list while already living back in Germany took me a couple of phone calls with individuals who mostly didn't know how to answer my questions (though finally somebody could help me) How ridiculous! Checking the "I'm not a USC" box on the answer doesn't get you off the list for the future. I could keep going on how silly this all is, but... really, it's just silly...

[mendeleev 68]

I get called from time to time to serve on jury duty (reasonably enough since i am USC). It has always been for drug cases. When the prosecution hears that I am a Ph.D. chemist, they have, every single time, dismissed me.

Kinda tells you something, huh?

Edited July 16, 2008 by novotul

[Anna C. 4]

That's such a downside of citizenship... I personally don't believe in juries, and I don't want to judge anyone as I don't feel fit for it. I also would never find a murderer guilty no matter what because I do not believe in death sentence. I hope they will never pick me for my "extreme" views.

On another side... $40 a day? That's nothing, that's what many people make within less than 2 hours! We'd loose a ton of money for that! And what about childcare? And as somebody else mentioned, what about gross details? I can't even watch a horror movie without weeks of nightmares... I hope they consider that...

[lucyrich 19]

You need to be a USC to serve on a jury correct?

Yes Jury duty and voting are for USC's only.

Sorry to burst your bubble....

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/men...00045f3d6a1RCRD

Permanent Residents can vote.... DH has a voters registration card!!!!

Be very very very careful.

Yes, there I've heard there are state and local elections that do not require US Citizenship, but all Federal elections are for US Citizens only. And in fact, I don't know where such state and local elections are that don't require US Citizenship.

If you register to vote in a federal election, or if you actually cast a ballot, that's a federal crime, a deportable offense, and a permanent bar to ever getting citizenship. They're harsh on enforcement of that law. They don't accept the excuse "I didn't know", or "I thought this election was open to permanent residents".

Furthermore, it's really easy to register to vote, and nobody will check your citizenship status. They'll just ask you to sign a form that, somewhere in the fine print, says "I certify that I'm a US Citizen over 18 years of age". So it's really easy to make the mistake of registering when you're not supposed to. There have been a few sad threads over on the US Citizenship forum about people who have made that mistake.