Jury duty vs. work

Probably the most frequently asked question of me by lay folks is how do I get out of jury duty. During my brief stints with jury duty myself, I've seen what works and what doesn't. Apparently Juror no. 10 in a death penalty case didn't do his homework and is now involved in a six week death penalty case. The PE reports here on the issues. The problem is that he's very much needed at work and his boss was bugging him to get out of it. The employee tattled on the boss and the judge ordered the boss to appear. Apparently, the company's financial future is on the line on a certain project and jurur no. 10 is necessary to get the project done. The judge was having none of it and ordered the boss to stop contacting the employee.

Lost in the article is what's going to happen to the company if the project goes south? Why do the shareholders of the company have to suffer because of a six week death penalty case and the loss of a key employee? What if the company gets sued for breach of contract on the project because of delay? (Happens all the time) What if the company goes bankrupt because it didn't complete the project timely? There's certainly an argument that juror no. 10 should never have been empaneled. What if juror no. 10 didn't tell the attorneys and the judge that he was needed so badly? Shouldn't the company be able to fire him?

These are all tough questions. But Judge Cahraman said it best:

Judge Tom Cahraman, presiding judge of the Riverside County courts, said jury duty can prove inconvenient for both employers and employees, but "it is one of the prices we pay for freedom," Cahraman said.