Why Jury Duty Sucks

Who Can Afford to be on Jury Duty?

VvonV has recently been scheduled for Jury Duty. He got the mailed order, and had the option to lie in order to get out of it, but he didn't.

So, yesterday morning he had to report downtown at court for Jury Duty. Meaning, that he missed work. Most people don't know that if you do Jury Duty, your employer has no obligation to pay you while you miss work.

Meaning, that VvonV missed a day's work, and will not get paid for it.

There are all kinds of ways to get out of Jury Duty. The most obvious of these would be making statements that show you are racist. There are a ton of other commonly known ways. The thing is, VvonV didn't resort to any of those things. It's one of the million reasons why I love him to death.

But, he's been brought back again today. Which means another day with no pay. As far as I know, the only reimbursement you can get for Jury Duty is parking fees, which for VvonV would be about $7 a day.

It doesn't look good, in that he hasn't been sent home yet today- I hope he's not going to be signed on. We cannot afford for him to not get paid for days/weeks/months of him being on a Jury, just because he is an honest person.

I can't count the times I've gotten screwed over because I was honest. I understand why a lot of people are dishonest- you get rewarded for it. For some people, I'm guessing myself and VvonV, it's just impossible not to be honest, even when you are aware of what being honest will entail. What it will cause.

I just hope whoever he's being kept on for will plead guilty or have their case dismissed, because we absolutely cannot afford for him to not get paid while he's serving as a juror. And it's not likely he'll be dismissed, because he's the perfect combo of being a minority (spanish) as well as being destructively honest. He's an attorney's wet dream.

UPDATE
He ended up losing over a week on this jury duty. For which he had to pay for lunch everyday down by the courthouse... with a reimbursement of about $80 for his mileage and gas. It was about some Indian (from India) gangster who'd assaulted another by using some Indian bracelet as 'Brass Knuckles' on his face. Guilty, but got no time even with prior convictions. WTF? I wish selfish people like that would think of other people. The judge, prosecutor, lawyers all get paid, but all the people on that jury (and their families) suffered lost wages, just to see them get convicted... and then slapped on the wrist and let go. I can see why people lie through their teeth to avoid jury duty- we really needed that week of VvonV's pay that he didn't get because of some selfish criminals.