Recently I was summoned for jury duty. I sat all day long in a room with several hundred people. Ultimately about half were called to be considered for juries. Then they sent us home. People just sat around in there all day long. An amazing variety of people, which is the point of a jury.
It seemed to be that there must be something useful you could do with a cross-section of the population whom you had compelled to show up. I propose potential jurors could occupy their time answering opinion polls. Pollsters crave representative slices of the population, and in the jury pool they have one. Each juror could be paid a dollar for each poll filled out, and the city would get a dollar too - or whatever price the poll market would bear. If a potential juror did not want to fill out polls, fine. This would make money for the city and let the summoned folks do something productive.
And if you answered all the polls available you would get a little cup of frozen custard.-- bungston, Mar 21 2007 A bunch of people who are pissed off about jury duty seem to be a highly questionable source of poll data.-- nuclear hobo, Mar 21 2007 /And if you answered all the polls available you would get a little cup of frozen custard./
In lieu of, or addition to the monetary reward?-- Texticle, Mar 21 2007 //A bunch of people who are pissed off about jury duty seem to be a highly questionable source of poll data//
If you look at it like that, it's easy to say that any group of people who can be arsed to fill out a poll for free is hardly a representative slice of society, no? It's like all the TV, and print media phone-in "polls". The only opinions recorded are those of people who can be arsed calling in.
The funny side of this is when a TV news article reports a poll, whereby a certian percentage of the poll-ers phoned in to say that they are "undecided" or "don't care" on the issue at hand. I love that there are people who will do that.-- Custardguts, Mar 21 2007 //something useful you could do// hmmm.
knit squares for blankets for the homeless, sew mailbags, break rocks?-- po, Mar 21 2007 Now you're talking - Jury Choirs. I like it. As well as traditional choral works (e.g. Handel's "Messiah" if you're doing jury duty near Christmas time) jurors would practice singing the words "Guilty" and "Not guilty" in rousing four-part harmony for when the time comes to give a verdict.-- hippo, Mar 21 2007 <sings>
Now, Jurymen, hear my advice All kinds of vulgar prejudice I pray you set aside, I pray you set aside: With stern judicial frame of mind, From bias free of ev'ry kind, This trial must be tried!
Silence in Court! Silence!
From bias free of ev'ry kind, This trial must be tried...
<sings badly>-- po, Mar 21 2007 //I did jury service for about a month last year - nobody there felt particularly pissed off with having to be there. Most of us felt quite privileged to be there.// Which planet was that on?-- nuclear hobo, Mar 21 2007 Planet England?
I like this. It's better than our stupid "Neilson" Family, or whatever that is.-- blissmiss, Mar 21 2007 In the U.S., one's civic duty consists of spending a day or three waiting, followed by voir dire, and if one is truly unfortunate, having to give up ones day job and sit through days and days of indescribable absurdity watching lawyers accumulate small fortunes, for which one is paid $40 per day.-- nuclear hobo, Mar 22 2007 do you get to watch trials (while waiting) in the US?
here, you're just shoved in a room.-- po, Mar 22 2007 + Excellent idea. Some other opinions: 1. Do you like being called for jury duty? 2. Are the workers at the courts friendly people? 3. How long have you been sitting here?-- xandram, Mar 22 2007 [+] everybody likes custard-- lilsis, Mar 22 2007 blah-- blissmiss, Mar 23 2007 //In the U.S., one's civic duty consists of spending a day or three waiting, followed by voir dire, and if one is truly unfortunate, having to give up ones day job and sit through days and days of indescribable absurdity watching lawyers accumulate small fortunes, for which one is paid $40 per day.//
Come now nuke, the lavish travel stiped of fifty cents per mile, and the threat more than makes up for it all. Besides, you've forgotten the accomodating phone system, whereby your date to show up, and venue can be rapidly changed for your inconvenience.-- ye_river_xiv, Mar 24 2007 random, halfbakery