I got "selected" for Jury Duty....What should I do?

Run. Run hard, run fast and run far. Then show up for Jury duty.

Well you HAVE to go if you’ve been summoned. You go for the day and they choose people to be on the jury from the pool they summoned that day. They’ll ask you a bunch of questions, and I’m sure mental health will be brought up, so you’ll probably be dismissed. But you have to go or you’ll be in BIG TROUBLE:)

Inform them of your mental health issue. You’ll probably be excused.

they’ll interview you before final selection. they’ll excuse you then

Tell them your not stable to do it :)

Can anyone be a juror?

The law provides that the following persons cannot serve on a jury:

* judges of courts of law and municipal judges;
* officers of the court (clerks, sheriffs, etc.);
* members of the Privy Council, the Senate, the House of Commons of Canada, the Conseil exécutif or the National Assembly of Québec;
* peace officers and fire fighters;
* practising lawyers or notaries;
* coroners;
persons afflicted with a mental disability or mental illness
* persons who are not sufficiently fluent in French or English;
* persons charged with or convicted of a criminal offence;

I know I can be excused,

my question is “what if I don’t tell them about my Mental illness, and want to do it?”

Worst case scenario- you are selected for a trial and a person is convicted who is guilty.

Their lawyer wins an appeal due to your non-disclosed mental illness and they are potentially freed. All the cost of taking them to trial and all the time spent is lost and the general public is not safe from the offender.

@Dog but would a lawyer search every jurors background? the courts obviously didn’t

Go.

@tyrantxseries They will ask you at the screening if you are deemed unfit to serve. Tell them about your illness, and they will decide if you are fit.

If all else fails, just pull a Larry David.

It is a lawyers job to exonerate their client. I have seen new trials due to proven jury tampering so I am assuming that they will investigate the jurors. I do not know how in depth they will/can search.

I do know that by not disclosing your illness when asked you are risking a mistrial and could be breaking the law.

The requirements in quebec are probably similar to the the US—if you claim mental disability as a reason not to serve, they will ask for proof, as in a doctor’s statement. Once you get there, they will run you through an initial fitness screening, which you must answer truthfully, otherwise it would result in a mistrial, (and there may be perjury charges against you for lying under oath.) Once you pass the initial screening, you enter a jury pool, where lawyers will ask you various questions, to determine if you would be favorably predisposed to their side. You could go through all this, and not get picked at all.

Go. Answer their questions honestly. Easy as pie!

“Can anyone be a juror?

The law provides that the following persons cannot serve on a jury:

* judges of courts of law and municipal judges;
* officers of the court (clerks, sheriffs, etc.);
* members of the Privy Council, the Senate, the House of Commons of Canada, the Conseil exécutif or the National Assembly of Québec;
* peace officers and fire fighters;
* practising lawyers or notaries;”

LOL – wonder why fire fighters cannot serve!?

I am an “officer of the court” and unable to serve, sadly. I have always wanted to though!

Great advice above. You do need to go.

On a practical note, bring a book to read and an iPod. Even if they excuse you, you’ll be hanging around for a few hours at least.

If you are picked for a panel, during voir dire they will ask you all kinds of questions. Answer them honestly and you’ll be fine.

Cut off your little toe…wait no, that’s for a military draft

@Dog I submit that the worst case scenario (in any trial) is that an innocent person is convicted, not that a guilty person goes free.

@MrItty Absolutely true in a general sense. However for this question I could not see how deliberate non-disclosure of a mental illness could negatively affect that outcome if discovered after the fact.

Perhaps if the mental illness impaired the judgement of the juror and the juror influenced the rest to convict wrongly? But then when discovered the wrongful would be thrown out but still it would be traumatic for the person on trial.

Feel free to create more possible scenarios from the question. That is what the user is asking and we should explore all aspects.

Just answer the questions they ask you honestly.

Just tell them you always go with your gut when making decisions.

You will be home for dinner.

When during voir dire, they ask you if you can think of any reason why you shouldn’t serve on this jury, stand up and shout at the top of your lungs: “You can tell just by looking at him, he’s GUILTY!!”

Seriously, tho’, you should serve. It’s your civic duty, they give you 25 dollars a day, and if you’re a level-headed person, they need you to help decide the fate of the accused.

How would you like it if you were on trial and the only people they could find to serve on your jury were people “too stupid to get out of jury duty”?

Jury duty is definitely a learning experience. I recommend that you go and watch how the process works. It is one of the most important processes in our country, where trial by jury is a right.

Do answer all questions honestly, and do take a good book. Also, bathe thoroughly before you go and hope that everyone else does the same. For some reason, potential jurors always have to sit even closer together than at any sports event.

@Dog You assert that if the OP’s mental conditions influenced the jury to convict an innocent person, then ”when discovered”, the mental conditions would exonerate the defendant. What if they’re not discovered?

@Mritty Assuming the person was able to sway the entire jury that would be tragic indeed.

What @MacBean said.

@La_chica_gomela: GA! ;)

Vote not guilty on a drug case. I’ve wanted to do that for years. If its not a drug case, tell them about your mental illness. Of course if they ask, you have to give it up.

If you don’t tell them and it gets found out later, than the case can be considered a mistrail. Surely you wouldn’t possibly want someone to go free because you were later deemed unfit.
Ask them if you can serve in some other capacity. Sometimes you don’t do straight court duty.
My brother once got called for jury duty and he went in every Monday for 10 days. His job was to simply select which crimes where harsh enough to go to small claims court and which should be settled out of court. An example would be a shop lifter, if it was a first time they may impose a small fine, if it seemed more serious then it would go to court. All minor offenses.