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Comment by noonespecial | Hacker News Reader

Calling all HN types in East Texas:

Make damn sure to show up for Jury Duty.

You'll never get selected. In most any lawsuit, if you have a three figure IQ, then chances are that one lawyer or the other doesn't want you on the jury.

You'll never get selected. If you don't even show up.(1)

(1) I've been on the juries of 2 civil suits and one criminal trial so far, and was the foreman once. Want sanity in the justice system? Bring it.

I think each lawyer gets only a limited number of juror challenges. So a smartie might still get through.

> Limited number of juror challenges

That's correct if we're talking about peremptory challenges. There's no cap on the right to ask the judge to disqualify a prospective juror for cause, e.g., if s/he is related to one of the parties, is friends with one of the lawyers, etc., or otherwise has the appearance of potential partiality.

In the i4i vs. Microsoft patent case, in that very district, the jury foreperson had 3 college degrees (one a graduate degree), a couple other jurors had math degrees, and one had a computer science degree. The judge had a bachelor's degree in mathematics, and worked as a computer programmer and systems analyst before entering law school.

Incorrect, product liability and patent law both sides want educated people to understand what the hell is happening.

> product liability and patent law both sides want educated people to understand what the hell is happening.

Not always - if one side looks evil, the other side's lawyers might want jurors who can't understand the technology and therefore will vote based on good-guy-versus-bad-guy. Happens a fair amount.

My sole experience with jury duty -- during voir dire:

Prosecutor: Juror number six, slightly abstract analytical question.

Me: Intelligent answer.

Prosecutor: The prosecution thanks and excuses juror number six.

Uh huh. I'm gonna remember that if I see you do it to someone else next time.

The reason they want to do it in East Texas is because the patent infringement federal court in east Texas is one of a few that handles patent infringement cases very quickly. Most federal courts that handle patent infringement are very backed up and getting a verdict on a case could take years. Obviously Webvention does not want to get caught up in an expensive and long court battle. They make their money from the $80K fees not the court battles.

Most people on HN would never be allowed to sit in a jury -- they tend to filter the smart people out, as the lawyers can't really manipulate them (this isn't just kneejerk, try to show up for jury duty with a big book under your arm).

I've sat on a jury... should I be worried? :)

I'm always amused how the people who are easiest to manipulate think they are hard to manipulate.

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