DC Only-Longest Federal Petit jury district court trial you served on?

[Anonymous]

just asking for washington, dc only. please tell me, what is the longest "Federal Petit" in DC District court jury service you had (not grand)? i have been called for 2 weeks straight to possibly be selected for a trial, but unclear how long a trial can last, if selected.

for the uninitiated, the more common DC superior court petit (not grand) jurty duty service is 1 day or 1 trial (and do not think those can go past 5 days)

[Anonymous]

I think mine was 6 days all in.

[Anonymous]

I had a summons for two weeks, but I was excused every day when I called to check in.

[Anonymous]

I am a little confused by your question.

I once served on a jury in DC for a murder trial and my service lasted two weeks (1 week for the trial and 1 week for the deliberations). I can't remember how long my jury "window" was as I got assigned to a jury on the first day of service (and the voir dire for that jury started almost immediately after jury service started).

I am confused by the federal vs superior court question because obviously my service lasted more than 5 days but it was not a federal case -- it was in DC superior court.

What I do know is that it was a huge PITA and since then I am pretty eager not to wind up on another jury if I can help it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:just asking for washington, dc only. please tell me, what is the longest "Federal Petit" in DC District court jury service you had (not grand)? i have been called for 2 weeks straight to possibly be selected for a trial, but unclear how long a trial can last, if selected.

for the uninitiated, the more common DC superior court petit (not grand) jurty duty service is 1 day or 1 trial (and do not think those can go past 5 days)

I was on a regular DC Superior Court jury for a trial that lasted eight days, and it wasn't a murder case or anything like that. So no, that's not true.

[Anonymous]

Federal, meaning district court?

Shortest trial sat, 9 days
Called in for 14 days straight another time never pulled in
Voir Dire for a J6 trial and dismissed.

Longest? 7 weeks.

[Anonymous]

my spouse was on DC petit jury for 5 weeks, 3 days a week. it was a major burden on his work schedule.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:my spouse was on DC petit jury for 5 weeks, 3 days a week. it was a major burden on his work schedule.

That sounds more like a grand jury schedule--if it really was one trial, why did they do it that way?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:my spouse was on DC petit jury for 5 weeks, 3 days a week. it was a major burden on his work schedule.

That sounds more like a grand jury schedule--if it really was one trial, why did they do it that way?

Likely to reduce the burden in the jury and court. If it was a trial with children implicated facts and perhaps a lot of technical expert testimony, they might choose to spread it out rather than have a jury miss work for three straight weeks. Still very burdensome but allows people to not get too far behind (and allows people who work hourly jobs without leave to still fill a couple shifts.

A trial like that can also often have a lot of hearings regarding which evidence to allow or not and doing 3 days a week allows the court to have those hearings on days the jury isn't there anyway, rather than keeping them cooling their heels in the jury room waiting for that stuff to end so the trial can resume.

It would be unusual but I can see why a judge might choose that schedule under certain circumstances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:my spouse was on DC petit jury for 5 weeks, 3 days a week. it was a major burden on his work schedule.

That sounds more like a grand jury schedule--if it really was one trial, why did they do it that way?

Likely to reduce the burden in the jury and court. If it was a trial with children implicated facts and perhaps a lot of technical expert testimony, they might choose to spread it out rather than have a jury miss work for three straight weeks. Still very burdensome but allows people to not get too far behind (and allows people who work hourly jobs without leave to still fill a couple shifts.

A trial like that can also often have a lot of hearings regarding which evidence to allow or not and doing 3 days a week allows the court to have those hearings on days the jury isn't there anyway, rather than keeping them cooling their heels in the jury room waiting for that stuff to end so the trial can resume.

It would be unusual but I can see why a judge might choose that schedule under certain circumstances.

Or pp was confused about petit vs grand juries. Anyway, it's all irrelevant to OP...it doesn't matter how long other people had jury duty; if you wind up getting into voir dire the judge will tell you how long the trial is expected to take. Even then, they can't tell you how long it will take to deliberate.