Jury Duty

[snickerd3]

With the Blago retrial begining again in IL. The jury selection brought up some good issues. If potential jurors are getting a pass because serving would cause a financial hardship, there is going to be a point where the only people serving on juries are those with $ that can afford to take the time. Will it really be a jury of your peers at that point? Does the $ given to jurors need to be increased or other safeguards to ensure people will not lose their jobs or pay while serving?

 

[csb]

Bureau of Labor Statistics cites that in 2007, 71% of workers in private industry had paid jury leave as a benefit.

http://www.bls.gov/ncs/ebs/sp/ebsm0006.pdf

Obviously, there's been a bit of a economic change since 2007...but I'd hazard a guess that many people are paid to be at jury duty, while temp jobs and hourly positions may not be.

However, I'd argue that very few people ever have a jury of their peers. I was called up for jury duty in college and I got out of it because of a lab. I then saw that it had been a drug case, to which I exploded that I wasn't that person's peer, because I was too busy doing homework to ever have time for drugs.

Interesting thought, though.