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SnooRevelations9889 t1_iurh9bp wrote

It’s long overdue that the concept of a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work comes (back) to our state courts.

Federal jurors get $50 a day (until completing 45 days of jury service, then it goes to $60) — still a pittance, but they are (slowly) moving in the right direction.

Judges will chide people for trying to get out of jury duty, but it’s only the financially rational thing to do.

And things are tight for so many workers, it's pretty unreasonable to expect people to shrug off the loss of income.

But a little financial consideration would change the attitude of many potential jurors, and you'd see more people content to serve. A lot of folks would be like: "Well, it’s not what I could make otherwise, but it’s something.”

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xeio87 t1_iurtezf wrote

I'm lucky that my job gives PTO for jury duty, has to be absolutly awful for anyone losing a significant amount of their income from a long trial.

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Sennva t1_iv0mlzh wrote

Exactly. Only those retired or well-off financially can comfortably afford to serve jury duty as it stands. Everyone else is incentivized to try to get out of it by the need to earn enough to pay existing bills. I'm not sure how anyone can argue that doesn't skew the pool.

Thankfully it isn't common, but some trials last months. There have even been a few that lasted years! It is ridiculous to expect people to take such a drastic pay cut for an indefinite period of time and with so little notice.

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SnooRevelations9889 t1_iv0pqi6 wrote

And those fortunate enough to have jobs that still offer paid time off for jury duty. It's not unheard of.

Of course, the boss might expect you to “catch up” on your tasks after serving jury duty, but that's a different issue.

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