Jury duty is a wonderful thing

st dude said
I tried a jury trial in Baton Rouge last month. 12 people plus an alternate gave my client a week of their lives to help determine what he was fairly owed after someone's mistake altered his life in a very bad way.

I told them in thanking them for their service that the three most American things one can do is serve in the military, vote and serve on a jury.

If you live long enough it evens out. You may serve on a jury and give your time. You or a family member may get hurt or be the victim of a crime and a jury gives you their time.

I have been called a couple times for jury duty but never selected. I think I could be a fair juror and hope to take my turn one day.

I have tried many criminal and many civil cases over the years. You read a lot of stories about how messed up the system is. Ours is the best in the world. Every jury I have ever had, win or lose, has taken the responsibility very seriously and has worked very hard to try to do the right thing.

I've served twice in a jury in 5 years (what are the odds?). I didn't like waking up in the morning to go to court and not get paid, but in hindsight, it's probably one of the biggest contributions I've ever made to my community.

There were a few people in the pool that were advising me to seem as partial as possible to be taken out of the jury during the questioning phase before trial. That's really wrong to me. I also remember them saying that attorneys normally don't pick other attorneys or physicians to be jurors. Why is that?