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Emerson student disappointed she won't be paid for jury duty
By adamg on Wed, 12/10/2008 - 9:43am
Gabrielle Tassone makes the case against requiring out-of-state college students from serving on Massachusetts juries - they can be called by both Massachusetts and their home states. But she snowflakes it all up:
Students are not compensated for their "inconveniences" and, more importantly, they might be missing a day of classes. The learning potentially missed during that day is not easily made up.
That's pretty cool that she's never cut a class.
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Comments
Posters on MBTA Busses
I've been noticing some print ads on the 7 bus reminding riders that jury duty is their civic duty. (I think that's the wording they use.) I thought it was strange that money was spent on ad space for that sort of campaign; that is, to make us feel good about something we're required by law to do anyway.
She's right, though
First off, when you cut class, you can make an informed decision about what learning you will miss. Not so with jury duty. You miss whatever would be taught that day. Maybe you'll be fine without it, but maybe it was an important lesson. Students are shelling out a lot of money for their classes and getting pretty deeply in debt for their troubles. I think its reasonable for them to be given wide leeway in putting off jury duty.
What's more, I don't think its appropriate to be eligible to be called in two states. Only one is a permanent residence. Now, I'll make an exception for students living in off-campus housing as they DO have a permanent residence in the state, but they still should be given room to reschedule around their classes as much as possible. The problem is, jury duty notices are being sent to students in dorms. Often through campus mail. A case where a student has to return to Boston to serve jury duty should clearly not be reasonable. I served jury duty while I was in school, but I served it in my home state which was fine. That's where I was a legal resident. That's where I filed my taxes. Just being present in the state shouldn't subject one to jury duty. I think jury duty is an important civic service and responsibility, but that's precisely why I don't think students should be required to do it just because they sleep in the state for a few months out of the year.
She can babysit for others then
So. Having to miss class is tough, never mind that you can defer serving for a year.
Try jury duty when you have an infant and don't work outside the home (and thus do not have an ongoing flexible childcare arrangment or income to cover it) for inconvenience, snowflake twit! Get this - make that "jury duty when you are taking night classes and have two children under three at home" for "inconvenience".
If MA makes new parents have to find this miraculously free infant and child care for up to several days out of the ether or make up some imaginary inlaws to do the trick, I think an entitled brat can manage to take their "evidence of service" note from the court and use it to torque any professor who is so self-important as to play games with civic duty.
Besides, all these drunken idiots need a jury of their peers, you know.
It's inconvenient for everyone
People who are self employed have to serve, even if it mean losing actual money. Stay at home parents have to serve, even if it means hiring child care.
Plus, as she admits in her article, you can reschedule to a date when you don't have classes (that's what I did when I was called to serve for the same week by baby was due).
Snowflake still gets to use the courts if she's a victim right? Or will she take the case home and have it tried there?
Jury Duty one of the few responsibilities that citizens have to actively participate in the system of justice. Suck it up and go. You may even get a blog post or 5 out of it. http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com/2008/11/8-days-in-se...
Incredibly awful example.
A tourist can use the courts if they are a victim. Someone who has never stepped foot in Massachusetts can still have access to our courts. That's hardly a reason for a non-resident to be pressed into jury duty. We don't drag people off the ramp at Logan and put them on a jury. That someone can seek redress in Massachusetts courts would be seen as justifying jury duty would justify summons for every person in the world.
If someone is a permanent resident of the Commonwealth, they should be eligible to serve in the Commonwealth. Student or not. Dormitory residents should not be seen as permanent residents of the Commonwealth and that's the important issue.
Bad example
You're right, that could be an ugly slippery slope. I was merely trying to show how jury duty was relevant for her even though she is a permanent resident of another state.
Honestly, I think it's less of a burden to be called to serve here than to have to drag herself back home during the school year to serve there. I think serving here should get her an exemption in the off chance she gets called at home within three years.
Good point
Anybody want to bet we wouldn't hear a pile of whining if the writer got called back to jury duty in CT during the school term?
Students who are here 9+
Students who are here 9+ months of the year are non-residents? The Feds and Menino beg to differ.
(Link courtesy of this recent UH story.)
A little legaleze - you can have both a State of Legal Residence ("SLR" - where you're registered to vote, etc) and a Statutory Residence (where you are actually living). Generally, statutory residency is about taxes - some states can require statutory residents to pay income tax on wages earned in-state. But some (I guess MA among them) extend statutory responsibilities to include things like jury duty, et al.
I originally came to Boston (back in the Pleistocene) to attend college, and was called to jury duty while a student, so this has been going on a looong time. Given the burden on civil services that the hundreds of thousands of students put on MA communities, my advice would be to suck it up and deal.
Having it both ways
First off, most schools only have 30 weeks of classes in the academic year, so its not quite as dramatic as 9+ months of residence. Between 7 and 8 months depending on how long a student's exam period is.
Besides that, if you are on assignment for a job and in New York for 9 months, that doesn't make you a citizen of New York state. You reside there temporarily, but you aren't a citizen of the state and I think that's an important distinction to make.
Look, if a student wants to register to vote at their college, my mind will very much change. Because in that instance, the student is making an affirmative decision to be a part of this new community and should expect to fulfill the civic responsibilities that go along with it. If they take on a year-long lease in a community, my mind will very much change. But while the presence of students does impact this community and needs to be recognized in determining state and federal funding in communities with a large student population. But they can't have it both ways, either. Students either live at home or they live at school. The fact is, in Massachusetts, you are subject to jury duty both places and that doesn't strike me as reasonable. I happily reported in Connecticut when I was in college. Jury duty is an important civic responsibility and I understand that we can't just make exceptions willy nilly. But we can't have it both ways either. We can't call on students at school AND students at home, and that is how Massachusetts law is written. You should only be eligible one place at a time. Barring an affirmative action by the student in aligning with their school's community, eligibility should come from the student's permanent residence.
If out of staters can serve on Jury...
Why are they paying out of state tuition? If the state wants to treat them as a resident, with all the rights and responsibilities thereof; they should share in the benefits.
This has always seemed a case of Mass. wanting it both ways. I also feel it potentially violates the "jury of peers" clause - in that to some degree peers should be from a similar locale. You'll note that they usually have to have a "change of venue" hearing to move a contentious case to a different locale. By bringing in jurors from other locales, they're making an end-run around that limitation.
Gotta drive up from CT for the day?
Her argument that she'll miss a day of class is a non-starter, seeing as how she already resolved that problem by postponing to the summer. If she doesn't have a summer job, then I guess she'd just be laying around the house bugging her parents anyway. Having to drive up to Boston from CT for the day is a drag, but at least it'll get her out of mommy's hair. Could be worse. At least she doesn't live in Hawaii.
In any case, she should file for reimbursement for her travel expenses. This from the juror handbook:
Reimbursement rates
For child care, they give you $1.50 an hour if my memory serves. That may have gone up, but they don't fully reimburse the costs.
Really helps, that.
I was lucky that my husband worked for a Scandanavian firm that considered my jury duty to be a reason for him to take a paid day off.
Sounds like you made out pretty well
Any other complaints to air?
I was called for jury duty
I was called for jury duty by Massachusetts while I was in grad school in Ohio. The card they sent me had an "My permanent residence isn't in Massachusetts" or something like that as an acceptable excuse.
I got a jury duty card. I
I got a jury duty card. I replied on the card, ticking the "I'm not a US citizen box" (Which i'm not. I live here and pay the same taxes though. But I digress.)
They sent me back a postcard sized thing that said "You are not a US citizen", which I thought was nice. I think I kept that.
One day...every what? Five years?
Seriously? Shove your "learning potential" up your wazoo.
The One Trial, One Day system is awesome compared to what it used to be. We have enough eligible jurors to go about 5 years between duty calls. That means you'll miss one day *once* in your entire undergraduate collegiate life (unless you're seriously slacking AND they pegged you for duty on your first month in college...at which point you'll probably be welcoming any required off time you can find anyways).
You'd have to be seriously unlucky to do more than a day in your entire time at college here. God, imagine all the "learning potential" you'd lose if you broke your leg skiing or got the flu or had to make a holiday flight early/late... Jury duty? Get bent.
To be fair, if you are
To be fair, if you are actually picked for a jury, you can be out for much longer than a day. The one time I was summoned for jury duty, I was selected for a civil case and was out for a whole week.
Probability
The likelihood that you're picked..and that if picked the case going to trial...and if going to trial the trial lasting more than about 3 days...
You might as well play the lottery and complain about all the money you won.
Besides, I'm willing to bet a student could even claim hardship due to an exam/lab/whatever that, if missed, would irreversably damage their grades that they would be given a pass from a prospective pool by the judge or a prosecutor who doesn't want someone ruing the fact that they made them serve, costing them their GPA or worse, having to retake a class or something.
Depends On The Judge
As was kindly pointed out by KellyJMF, I just recently did 8 days on a jury.
Once you reach the courtroom (which, as someone else pointed out, is usually a longshot) the judge will inform you of the expected length of the trial for which you are being considered as a juror. After that, he or she will ask if that length of time on a jury will present you with an undue hardship. If you say "Yes", then it is at the judge's discretion whether or not to let you go because of that hardship.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
If jury duty could be so harmful to grades ...
Then some colleges and professors need a bit of a talking to!
Massachusetts takes this pretty seriously. If universities and professors are penalizing students for serving, then they should expect to hear about it from the state. The "one day-one trial" system only works if employers obey the laws and people are not otherwise penalized for doing their duty. If all these administrators and professors want to whine about how college students aren't acting like adults, they have no business complaining when their students have adult responsibilities that conflict with class.
My husband was working for a "professional staffing" agency, and paid W-2 wages by that agency. Suddenly, they decided that because he was a "temporary", they didn't have to pay him for jury duty. They tried to screw him out of a week's pay over jury duty, and he filed a complaint. MA law is pretty clear that if you are paid on a W-2, your employer is on the hook. The employment agency got a call and it was resolved within a month.
Superior Court can involve longer trials.
n/m
3 years
I get called every 3 years without fail, ever since the first time I was called. I do sympathize with the student to a point, but the one day/one trial system is very fair & many people who were previously excused have to serve.
Odd
I'm in Middlesex and I haven't been called since my youngest was a baby ... about ten years. Even then I had put it off for a full year before I served.
I bet I'll be called up soon though.
Double Dipping
While I was in school out at UMass-Amherst I received two jury summons notices: one for home county of Norfolk and another for Hampshire County. I ticked off the "non-resident" box for Hampshire and never heard from them again. I would've served for Norfolk except my panel wasn't called. According to the jury duty website I technically could've been required to serve in both Massachusetts counties.
I can understand how someone who hails from CT, has a CT license, files income taxes in CT, and considers CT "home" would be ticked off about the possibility of serving jury duty in a MA court. We should not have out-of-state residents who are not familiar with Massachusetts laws, customs, and mannerisms sitting on our juries. Personally I would prefer for an out-of-state college student accused of disorderly conduct be judged by the Massachusetts residents he or she offended. If the state of CT wants to force this particular full-time college student onto a jury then let her grumble about missing class on the two hour bus ride to Hartford.
We should not have
1. So in-state residents are by default familiar with Mass. laws? I highly doubt it. It's lawyers' jobs to be familiar with the laws, and to convey them to the jury in context of the case.
2. Since when are customs and mannerisms valid elements of a case, legally speaking?
Mannerism
No, no, he said he gave him da fingah. Da fingah! What, ah you from Connecticut or somethin?
teh cluez
You could tell it had just happened because his frappe was still cold.
Deadlocked
I still don't understand how he could have stabbed a man at the corner store if he was at the spa at the time.
Well, if the man was bumper jumping ...
... and he didn't like him ridin' on his cah.
Or is that skid-hopping? Spuckie?
Are you kidding, Jiffywoob?
Since when are customs and mannerisms valid elements of a case? Since, well, always! Ever hear of a jury of your peers? A person charged in Massachusetts has a right to a Massachusetts jury, not a jury of out-of-state people who are in town temporarily for school.
Customs and mannerisms? They provide context for testimony. A Massachusetts jury hearing about a package store armed robbery has a different mental image than a Texas jury. One jury is thinking about alcohol, and the other is picturing a UPS store. Less obvious examples occur all the time. Sure–where there's a possibility of confusion, the lawyers and judges should make sure that testimony is clear and not dependent on regional language. Should. Doesn't mean it happens.
Daily interactions include customs and mannerisms. Hence, so does courtroom testimony.
And before I get blasted for dodging a civic duty, when I get jury duty, I show up. I'm in the process of moving my residency from Mass. to Maryland, where I went to grad school and where I decided to stay, but while in grad school, in Maryland, I received a summons for jury duty in Massachusetts, which was my home residence. I missed a day and a half of classes because I flew back to Boston for jury duty-didn't get empaneled, but I showed up. I do believe that showing up to jury duty is important. But should it be an obligation of non-residents? No.
This is a waste of my time
I'm sorry. I am a resident of Vermont, not Massachusetts. Yes, I attend school in Mass, but I am only here 7 or 8 months out of the year. I agree with what was said before. I have been called to jury duty in April. I will be missing three classes and work. Where I need to report is clear across the state and I need to be there by 8:30 am.
If I'm going to need to go through this bulls*** to "fulfill my civil duties" or whatever then I should be given state tuition to my school that is raising their cost $3,000 a year. Don't make me pay for out of tuition if I'm going to have to be on jury duty for your messed up criminals.
State or Federal?
You can change the location of your jury duty ... just read the form for details. I have done this before so I know it is possible.
I'm not sure why you would have to go "clear across the state" anyway since your service is based on the county you are in! Not like MA is a big state anyway ... but you might be able to get out or transfer closer to where you are. You can also put it off up to a year.
If it is federal jury duty, maybe somebody else can help you here.