My exciting adventure in jury non-duty.
Today was my first time to have been called to jury duty.
I get to the courthouse around 9:00 AM and go through security, and sit down in the waiting area. There are probably around 150 – 200 other potential jurists that have been called. We hear instructions from a woman who likes her job a bit too much.
A judge comes in and reads from a card a rather patronizing speech about the greatness of the U.S. jury system. Then he asks that anyone for whom jury duty would be “the worst thing in the world” and an “unbearable imposition on your life” to stand up. Probably about a quarter of the room stands up and since there are still enough people not standing, they are immediately excused. What nonsense; I would guess 90% of them, if asked, would say they simply did not want to serve rather than have an actual excuse as to why they could not serve. As if the rest of us didn’t have other things we wanted or needed to be doing.
We then took a 15 minute break. People are strange animals – from what I could tell, upon returning from break almost everyone sat down in about the same seat they had sat in previously, despite the room having cleared out a whole bunch since the proceedings began.
Three jury pools were selected for county-level cases. The guy next to me was selected for the third pool. The woman who was leading the selection process had earlier said there would be three county-level cases and one district-level case. However, after the third county-level pool was selected, those of us who remained were released. I collected my $6, stuffed it in one of the donation bins, and left.
So that was my experience: an hour and a half sitting in a cold room, followed by giving away my “pay” for the ordeal. But I did get a sweet certificate of completion out of it. Neat-0.