What to wear to jury duty? - Page 2

Wouldn't it be something if counsel said, "Your Honor, the defense would thank and ask the Court to excuse the guy in the W.W. Chan suit"!

I thought that too, but it was so hot and uncomfortable, and the gesture was so unappreciated, that I just gave in.

You'd think so, but the one time I was picked (for a criminal trial), I was wearing a suit. Regrettably, Jan, it was in my pre-Chan days.

Camouflage outfit with a NRA cap should help toward an early exit.
I wore a suit and tie and got put on a jury everytime.

You'd be surprised, actually. I showed up for jury duty in LA Superior Court in the stereotypical blue suit/white shirt/red tie/US flag lapel pin, ID'd myself as a prosecutor, then ended up sitting in the box for 2 days before being one of the defense's last couple of challenges.

There are a lot of common profile challenges that clothing won't help to invoke or avoid. For example, prosecutors typically bounce as many of the under-25 crowd as possible. Defense attorneys in street crime cases often bounce the people with the highest education levels, or who live in the suburbs.

Based on what I can recall of your "what am I wearing" photos, you might actually have a better chance of getting bounced if you went in sporting the rockabilly style and made at least one reference to being a musician--you'd probably get a prosecution ding. A lot of defense attorneys have backed away from what used to be a strong "asian = law & order = ding" knee jerk response, so if you went with the suit you would also want to do your best Jack Webb imitation when speaking.

In the old (perhaps crash-casualty) thread, someone said they treated jury duty as a week-long costume party, doing complete changes each day. The daily changeup won't work in LA where we have one-day, one-trial service in state court. But I do think that anyone seriously wishing to get dinged should just go in *actual* costume. My favorite would be the "Travis Bickle" with aviator shades, mohawk, and a military field jacket zipped to the throat. London punk circa '79 would be nice too, but all the metal would get you stopped by the deputies at the security checkpoint, and besides, who has the time to get the liberty spikes going in the AM anymore?

When you show up first day, everyone puts their summons paper into one of several piles: no paid jury duty, one week jury duty pay, unlimited jury duty pay.....so I'm assuming they start with the "unlimited" pile and pool from those folks, then go to "one week pay", and if they really need a lot of folks, hit the "no pay" pile last. right?

Dress like Dali, and speak at inappropriate times with vaguely profound implications.

Bradford,

That you were not picked is no honor. Serve on a jury once and you will have a much higher regard for the jury system and how seriously jurors take on the responsilbility.


Cuff

Actually, they match expected trial length with the piles--the purpose of splitting things that way is to cut down on people getting into the box and then raising a financial hardship issue. A courtroom that expects a 6-month trial gets only "unlimiteds" while a courtroom that expects a two week trial gets people from the middle. If you get no pay, they try to put you on the shortest cases.

When have I ever stated that I don't have regard for the jury system? I have served several times and even served as the foreman of a jury. Every time, I have taken the responsibility seriously. The fact that I actually take the time to show up and don't make stupid excuses to get out of it should get me some credit! If the lawyers want to use a challenge on me because I am wearing a suit, I don't consider that to be shirking my civic duty.

P.S. Last time I never even got out of the jury selection room, so it probably didn't make much of a difference what I was wearing.

I always look as average as possible for jury duty because I don't want to be there and if I have to sit in a room for 6hrs with a bunch of random people in hard plastic chairs I want to be as comfortable as possible.

I think the issue of suit depends a bit on context. I wore one when my turn came up about 15 years ago. Very plain-vanilla criminal case-- the indictment had a teenage hood stealing a car, racing it down a side street and then coming to rest in a showroom window--- all within view of a police officer. The defense appeared to be a PD and was not over-prepared. I was the second or third guy excused, and I'm pretty sure it was something like "let's get the rich guy off the jury-- he's sure to hate my client and have a Republican notion of law and order." Snap decision made by a lawyer barely awake.

I just got jury notice for the end of July down at 500 Pearl.

Now as a young attorney who may well end up appearing before many of the judges down there, my inclination is to go in a suit. Maybe if it's hot enough, I'll break out the seersucker.

I fall back on dressing up for the respect-to-the-institution reason. Same reason I did not wear shorts and a T-shirt to my daughter's graduation from HS ceremony at Lincoln Center (although other parents did).