My Jury Duty Experience

I just finished my jury service yesterday afternoon, but it had plenty of background and stress going into it such that it warrants several rants.

I was summoned for jury duty back last year in September. However, the reporting week coincided with the first week of a new quarter in college for me, so I wanted to postpone it to a later date. Of the dates that were given to me, the only week that seemed to work was in early January of 2012. However, that week contained my birthday, and well as a court-holiday on Monday (meaning that it would likely continue into the next week, when I would begin a new quarter yet again in college). So I sent in a request to get excused altogether because of school complications, such missing classes, lack of car and actually being away from home. They denied my request, but postponed my service to a week in March. However, that week coincided with my final examinations for the quarter, so I postponed it to the following week (which happens to be this week, and my Spring Break).

So I called in on Monday to see if I needed to report for service--nope.
I call in Monday night to learn that I do need to report on Tuesday--8 A.M.

My Tuesday experience was pretty unhappy. I arrived at the courthouse by 8AM, and I sat there playing Pokemon on my Nintendo DS until the 12 P.M. lunch break, but my name was not called. After the lunch break at 1:30 P.M., they called out a second set of jurors to report to a department for jury selection. I was one of the 54 people called. So I waddle over to the 15th floor of the building and sat there some more. Only the first 20 persons of the 54 were interviewed, while the rest just sat there watching. When the time reached 4:30 P.M., the judge declared that we would have to continue tomorrow, and everybody had to come back to the court at 1:30 P.M. the next day.

But to my dismay, I learned that if selected, I would have to be prepared to serve an average of 5-7 court business days the following week. Now that made me more angry and sad, because it meant I would have to request yet another postponement. This pissed me off for several reasons: (1) it was never previously mentioned that if selected to sit through a trial, I would have to dedicate an additional 5-7 days in addition to the entire reporting week that I had to make available, (2) I had been postponing since the summer because of school and just wanted to complete my service, and (3) if I were unsuccessful in getting a postponement and was selected to serve the following week, I would be starting yet another quarter at school. This would mean missing my classes, which included a lab class from which I would be dropped if I was late even one day. I was prepared to explain (3) to the judge, but I was not yet interviewed for the jury selection that day and did not have to opportunity to speak to her. This stressed me out that night because I was not sure if I would have to opportunity to explain this and get a successful postponement.

So I drive over to the court the next day and arrive by 1:30 P.M. But the judge and the lawyers representing the defendant and prosecution discussed "logistics" for an hour while all of the jurors waited outside. Once they herded all of the jurors into the courtroom like cattle, they announced that the case has solved itself, and that none of us were needed any longer. So that was a plus--my service was completed. But the part that makes me roar is that two days of my spring break was used up for that, and I stressed out about my classes being dropped. In the end, though, it turned out O.K.

I will be getting $15 for my service, and I did meet another juror who attends the same school. I also think one of the jurors is gay--he's a hair stylist and he made my gaydar go off the charts. :lol:

So that was my jury service. A lot of sitting and blandness. Listening to both obviously amateur and well-seasoned lawyers question the jury selection. It was also freezing cold in the room. Sucks balls to be a student and stressing out because of jury service.

 

Sounds really boring :/
I hope I don't ever have to do that... It seems like such a waste of time.

 

That sounds miserable.

I got a jury summons earlier this semester. There were two problems:

a) I'm going to school out of state, so there's no way I could make the trial.

b) My mom doesn't check the mail very often. By the time she got the letter, it was already a couple days after a response was expected, meaning I was technically in contempt of court for having not responded.

Thankfully that got cleared up without a lot of fuss.

 

Oh, I also wanted to add that I learned something from my service. The reason why the United States requires jury duty from its citizens is that the Constitution entitles a fair trial by jury to those charged (expanded in the Sixth Amendment). Interestingly, however, I wonder if the Founding Fathers envisioned jury selection to be anything like how it is today.

Unfortunately, I live less than 30 miles from where I attend school, so they argue that school isn't an excuse for me. As a result, I kept postponing and stressing out to make time. Even summer is complicated because of summer school.