In the UK you can claim financial compensation for the time you spend on jury service. I don't think it's very much, but it's something.

I know some people who bitch about jury duty even when their company covers it (thus not losing out on money, and not having to work double-shifts). I do not understand it.

Jury duty always seems to come during the crunchiest of crunch times in our fiscal year, so even though technically I don't have to make up the lost hours, it still winds up creating a mountain of extra work when I get back.

I'm pretty sure "my dad's a judge"

That wouldn't get you off the hook in most US jurisdictions, I think, since "I'm an attorney" hasn't worked for me.

My mother once sat on a jury for a trial that lasted 9 months. She was a teacher, so she did receive her full salary, and her job was protected. However, there were no family vacations, etc., during those months (which covered a summer - the only summer we didn't go to Maine).

Jessica, how flexible is NY in terms of jury duty deferments?

Wow, Sparky, what kind of case was it?

I'd really feel for someone who has to be sequestered.

I'm told it's possible, but I've never been able to successfully navigate the phone system well enough to find out for myself.

I like your doctor, Tep.

Jilli, is The Ghostly Equestrian Ball on your calendar?

I saw it on Jill Tracy's Twitter. Alas, there is no way we can go! But i can't feel too broken up about it, as Pete is taking me to Portland three days before that so I can go see Emilie Autumn and her Bloomer Brigade.

I'm told it's possible, but I've never been able to successfully navigate the phone system well enough to find out for myself.

Considering what happened when I donated my nonrunning car (and didn't know that I should take the license plates off), and it apparently was sold to someone in NY who went around loading up on parking tickets...and ended up getting horribly mean letters and phone calls from the City of NY (even AFTER faxing them the DMV printout that proved I hadn't owned the damn car for 3 years!)... Well, I feel for anyone who has to navigate that city's civil system.

There's probably an easier way to do it online now - Brooklyn only calls for jury duty every 7 years, so it's been a while since I've served.

(For people who want to do their civic duty but not actually get put on a jury, I'm told that July and August are the best times to show up. So many judges and lawyers are on vacation during that time that the number of cases goes way WAY down.)

When I was on-call for jury duty this summer, it was the first time they'd contacted me since I lived in Forest Park back in 2001. Before then, they'd had me on jury duty twice in 13 months.

The longest anyone I know has ever had to serve at once was six days, when a lawyer I worked with ended up serving for a murder trial down at 26th and California (one prisoner shanking another in the prison's barbershop).