r/nottheonion • u/ArgentineBeauty • 19h ago

Reese Witherspoon Chosen as Jury Foreman After Jurors Thought She Went to Law School Because of Legally Blonde

https://www.fashiontimes.co.uk/reese-witherspoon-jury-duty-mix-1763528
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u/GoldenPigeonParty 17h ago

The more serious and logical you are, the less likely you are to be selected.

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u/Thechasepack 16h ago

I've found the opposite. Both sides typically think their argument is the correct legal argument so they want people to think logically and apply the law correctly.

I was in a jury pool for a women who killed her kid earlier this year (not in Massachusetts). Jury Selection questions from both sides were mostly about finding people who could evaluate the case based on the law rather than emotions (with added questions from the defense on how we feel about punishment for young kids).

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u/_thenational 14h ago

the only jury I've ever been on was a guy suing his car insurance company for whatever. a lot of the questions they asked us centered around whether we could be fair based on our past experiences with insurance companies. lots of people were like, no, obviously not, insurance companies have fucked me six ways from sunday. those of us who were a little less hostile got selected.

joke's on them though because the deliberations basically boiled down to "whether or not this guy is legally right is irrelevant, obviously the slimy insurance company is fucking him and he seems nice enough, let's give it to him"

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u/gsfgf 4h ago

Civil juries are a completely different animal from criminal. Civil juries are basically random.

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u/No-Advice-6040 15h ago

Turned up to my first looking like a student, wearing a big heavy Tommy Hilfiger jacket. Selected for a week long trial. Turned up to my second looking decent, had to check in every damn morning to not be selected for anything and wasted my week.

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u/Fuzzy-Jaguar-1828 14h ago

No, during voir dire each side’s counsel will run out of no’s eventually. Once they are down to the last few possible jurors called they pretty much have to say yes. So if you are one of the last people they interview you have to be a juror basically.

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u/c-9 16h ago

you will be if you keep your mouth shut.

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u/oddministrator 16h ago

Well into middle aged and have never been summoned.

If there's anything people who know me would describe me as, it's "logical." Often to a fault, in many people's eyes.

Do they know?

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u/AipomNormalMonkey 16h ago edited 16h ago

I know a couple, he's gotten 4 summons, she's never had one.

Eventually they figured out that in their area they only register you for jury duty if you have a vehicle registered in your name.

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u/oddministrator 15h ago

My ex lived with me and got summoned multiple times, I never did. We both had vehicles in our names, the house was in mine.

Could be "luck," but it's really surprising. I love my job and have tons I need to do at it so any time away would be disruptive and generally unwelcome, but after 30 years I'm wondering if I have some sort of judicial cooties.

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u/AipomNormalMonkey 15h ago

it's possible it was a single clerical oversight

the only reason that couple figured it out was because he tutored the daughter of the property manager at their apartment complex

after they moved out, the new tenants brought any mail they received to the property manager who delivered them when he was tutoring...a few weeks after he received it he realized he updated his address for almost all government purposes...he overlooked the vehicle

based on how many hours it would take to make it to their court house by public transit it made sense...anyone without a car could claim undue travel burden and be excused anyway

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u/c-9 16h ago

I have been summoned maybe 7 times in the last 25 years? I've lost count honestly.

I live in St Louis. St Louis Metro area is about 2M people, but the city itself is about 300k. The big Eastern MO courts here only pull jury pools from St Louis city population. If I lived 3 miles away in St Louis County chances are I'd go a lifetime without being summoned.

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u/oddministrator 15h ago

That's what's confusing for me. I've been registered to vote in and had a vehicle registered in my name within city limits (most often in a situation very similar to STL -- metro > 1M, but live in the city of ~1/3 that) for three decades.

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u/DocileBanalBovlne 14h ago

I can't remember my dad ever being summoned, but my mom has a few times. Coincidentally, she was pregnant every time she got a summons so she never had to follow through.

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u/oddministrator 14h ago

Abortion is illegal in my state because the government contends an embryo is a person.

Sounds like a pregnant juror should get two votes, to me.