Jury Duty

[kproche]

I get to spend today going back and forth to the Hall of Justice.

Summoned for Jury Duty.

Drive to the light rail. Arrive 8:15am, check in, sit and do a jigsaw for 2 hours. The voice on the PA then announces that there has been a delay and we're released until 1:30.

So Light rail back to the car. Drive down to work for a bit. Show the gang that pushing the "Start" button will enable the machine they say isn't working. Fix a cranky printer.

Now it's lunchtime (better food than at Civic Center; one incentive to actually come down to work). Post this, eat, then back to the car, back to the light rail and then back to the HOJ.

Where I will work on the jigsaw some more.

Until they dismiss us, or empanel us and send us to a courtroom. (Unless they don't sort it out, in which case it's back in the morning).

Where I will sit until one or the other attorney decides they don't want a scientist on the jury (which almost always happens).

Then I get to go back to work or home, depending on the time.

Ain't justice grand?

K

Sorry if this sounds cynical. The first time I was called I was really excited to be doing my civic duty. Then reality set in. They very rarely seatl engineers/scientists on juries. So I go all through the rigamarole just to be sent home. And as soon as my 12 months are up, I get called again (actually, it was 18 mos this time). To go through the whole process one more time.h

Comments

Free at last!

[kproche.livejournal.com]

The parties settled, so we all got to go home at 1:45.

That isn't nearly as frustrating as sitting in the courtroom waiting for one of the attorneys to decide they don't like me.

K

[esprix.livejournal.com]

Same thing happened to me, except they called me in at like 4:15, so we had to come back the next day and I didn't get picked anyway. Sigh. How do they feel about gay bois? :D

[yanijc.livejournal.com]

I would love a chance to do jury duty, but the one time I've been called in the 10 years I've officially been a CA resident, the phone check-in the night before said I wasn't needed.

When I was still in college, a circulating anecdote told of a student who'd been called:
"Would you beleive the testimony of an expert witness?"
"Not if it disobeyed the laws of physics."
*boot*

He wasn't trying to get booted, just answering the question honestly.

[markobellydance.livejournal.com]

Hey kevin,

The cynism you feel about the American justice system and our antiquated jury selection process is felt by many. I myself have been called into jury duty twice in two years and have been selected both times. Always at the most inconvienient time (first time when I had just been hired by Montblanc, and the second during the preparations for moving into the new DeFrank building). In short, I feel for you! I hope you got excused after today. ME

This time I didn't feel so bad about it

[kproche.livejournal.com]

Since the entire pool was dismissed (the parties settled before trial, which is all they tell you regardless of whether it's a criminal or civil case so no one does any guessing) I didn't feel quite so abused this time.

The time before, the judge called us into the courtroom just before 4 to ask us to come back for selection in the morning. The judge explained generic aspects of the case, which involved a non-fatal shooting, and said anyone who thought they had a fundamental reason they couldn't serve on the case should stay and talk to him.

As it happened, Andy and I and our next door neighbor had just had to render first aid to a shooting victim on our neighbors porch a few weeks prior. I told the judge I doubted I could be an objective juror in a shooting case as a result and he agreed and released me.


The time before that I was all the way up in the jury box and for some reason the prosecutor decided to preemptorily challenge me. This is where the "scientists aren't put on juries" thing probably came into play. But I had to spend the entire day there before it happened.