I made it all the way to the final selection round on a Capital Punishment case and was released by the Judge due to a "hardship".
The Judge asked if I had any reason I didn't want to or couldn't serve and I replied honestly that my wife was looking forward to a long-planned vacation, and that I had pre-paid airline tickets to Hawaii.
He didn't have to dismiss me for that but he was kind. He explained that a vacation normally isn't a hardship and I replied that I understood that and was willing to serve. A few more questions and "Yes, Your Honor"'s later, I was dismissed.
The selection process was incredibly detailed and long due to it being a possible Capital Punishment case. A huge paper quiz on all sorts of questions dealing with views on Capital Punishment, religion, etc... and tons of questions about what I had seen in the media in the highly publicized case already, how much local media I typically watched or listened to, specifics of the broadcast stations, and various other things.
We were down to being scheduled in Court by twos for individual Jury selection interviews, which is when the dismissal took place. I'd been to Court numerous times and had consulted with my company's HR department about things I'd received in a letter from the Court after making it to what I assume was the final Jury selection round.
It basically said to get prepared to be in a Jury box for a long time and here's what to expect if you're chosen, etc.
It's awkward sitting in a Courtroom answering honestly that you'd like to go on vacation, when a man who's sitting at the Defendant's table only a few feet away, has his life on the line. I was mentally prepared for the Judge to say I needed to cancel that vacation and do my part. And would have.
The most difficult thing was my company's pay policies at the time vs the time estimated for the trial. They simply said they allowed employees to use up all of their PTO and take some from the next year, but they didn't pay the difference between the Jury Dury pay and my salary after that.
I had brought along documentation of this because they'd asked us to bring any hardships, including fiscal, along to the selection process that day, but it never got to those questions. The vacation was the dismissal point the Judge allowed and only because of the pre-paid airline tickets.
I had a folder full of documentation on my salary, a letter from HR with their Jury policy, and a printout of my spreadsheet showing the fiscal loss, but it never came out of the folder.
Since the trial was scheduled to be something just under three months long, and there was a warning that the Jury could be sequestered, etc... I calculated that I would lose somewhere between $10-$15K for doing my Civic duty, maybe higher... and was willing to do so, but ouch!
I don't know how anyone with a serious professional job can AFFORD to sit on a long term Jury trial like that one. (Well other than the lawyers, that is.)
Anyway, we got to have our vacation (and appreciated the Judge an awful lot for that) and watched the trial in the media.
The Defendant was convicted and sentenced to death for killing witnesses to another man's crime.
His name, Robert Ray. See this web page for links to the various trial news and info on the memorial set up for the victims.
http://www.fieldswolfememorialfund.org/press.html
Somewhat eerie to have been that close to being on that Jury, watching it all play out later on the TV news.
I think one of the big differences is, the car manufacturers will defend the baseless suits to the bitter end and will out lawyer most plaintiffs on a big case. Very few attorneys want to take a contingency case that they aren't pretty sure of winning and even fewer want a risky case that will take years to litigate. 
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