The daily pay is garbage! Expect to be there minimum 3 days, more likely 4 before you get excused. Very first time I had to appear, I got picked. Ridiculously frivolous Civil case. Middle-aged man was not looking where he was going. Tripped over a couple of sliding glass beverage doors that had been unscrewed and were leaning outside of the bodega so that the drinks refrigerator could be cleaned. Well, after he tripped, the doors fell over due to his carelessness. They shattered. Not on top of him. But a flying piece of glass cut into his ankle. Caused a bit of minor bleeding. So what does he do? He sues of course! Despite it was his own fault for not looking where he was walking.
The sheer BS that his attorney piled on. You could bury a mountain underneath it. At one point, trying to argue that since the Bodega manager had to use a screwdriver to take the doors off, that THAT somehow proved that the doors were never meant to come off; shouldn't have been removed, and thus should not have been leaning outside against the wall. His attorney's closing argument lasted over an hour and a half! The other side, made up of two lawyers, needed only 10 minutes. Judge even asked him if he needed more than an hour for his closing argument. Fully expecting the Plaintiff's attorney to say "No." So that he could make his closing argument and we'd all be able to break for lunch.
Judge looked visibly ticked off when the guy instead said, "Yes." (We all were.) So lunch, then back for a ton more BS. With the attorney then saying at the very end that he knows his closing argument was very long, and that hopefully we (the jury) don't hold that against his client. Nine of us on the jury. Two guys, the rest women. All the women and I immediately voted to give the Plaintiff nothing! The other guy? He wanted to review all the evidence. Keep in mind we had been in court for 5 days at this point. None of us wanted to be there any longer.... Except the one other guy. The women just stayed back, quiet as can be. While he and I butted heads for nearly an hour!
Blatant honesty, this guy was fresh off the boat from a 3rd World country. (I'm First Generation Immigrant too. But I don't place a massive amount of value on trivial things.) His mentality was clear, he took jury duty way too seriously considering the circumstances of the case. Well, when you come from a 3rd World Nation in which you haven't done anything but work, eat, and sleep; finding yourself on jury duty is an adventure in your new country. Seen as a highly important responsibility to such individuals. Something you can go home to your family living with you and brag about how you were trusted with such an important responsibility. So, of course; he didn't want the experience to end. About this time, we get called back into the jury room.
The Defendant's lawyers, both being morons, thought they were about to lose the case. So after 5 days of wasting our time, they offered a settlement. Plaintiff's attorney was older and clearly smarter than they were. So he agreed! Oh! I was ticked off! Made some exaggerated body movements to clearly convey my disgust. Afterwards, we were back in the room with the rectangular table before being dismissed. All three of them stopped by with smiles on their faces to informally ask us how we thought they did. What the Hell?! Okay, I pulled the two morons to the side and told them that they were idiots for settling because we only had one hold-out, and that they were going to win the case had they not settled. They looked shocked. I grabbed my jacket and followed the other jurors back to the courtroom after making sure I'd get to talk to Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum last. Judge thanked us for our time, and formerly dismissed us.
That ridiculous experience / disgustingly frivolous case is why I do my best to get out of jury duty. Thankfully, I don't have to make anything up, personally speaking. My circumstances, I've got a couple of provable exemptions I can use. That case should have been dismissed long before it got to trial.