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jury duty

geoff on 2004-09-13T21:46:31

so I just finished day one of my stint in federal jury duty. I can't think of other facet of life that represents such a colossal waste of energy and time. I suppose that actual jury duty isn't a waste, but I spent all day sitting around in a room full of 400 sweaty people, packed together like pickles, only to be told at the very end of the day that I had been chosen to serve starting tomorrow. the amount of time this service requires has yet to be determined, but I'm sure that it will involve lots of pointless waiting.

and just to top it off, what's waiting in my mailbox when I get home from this fiasco? another jury summons, for exactly one month from now, for local jury duty.



un-fsking-believable.

Jury Duty

Ovid on 2004-09-13T22:10:34

I feel your pain. I just received a jury duty summons for a trial that is expected to last twenty days. This is not fun.

well, the alternative to jury duty

merlyn on 2004-09-13T22:12:17

is to no longer be able to serve jury duty, correct?

Been there, done that...

runrig on 2004-09-14T00:15:21

...and I'm sure I'm not the only one. I've been called up four times, and only served on a jury once. Bring a book. Once I sat in a big room, and was let go after lunch (wheee, free half-day off!). Once a group of us were called to a courtroom, only to be told that the case was settled at the last minute (which they say often happens just before jury selection). Once I was in the courtroom, but the jury was selected before they got to me. And once I actually served, even after telling the judge that I might not follow his directions (e.g. "if so and so is against the law, and I tell you that if you find that he did so and so then you must find him guilty, will you find him guilty?"). We found him guilty, but not for any laws that I'm opposed to :-)

Correction

runrig on 2004-09-14T00:22:55

Just realized that you are actually serving. In that case, bringing a book is probably not such an important thing. I don't think the judge would take too kindly to a person reading a book while on a jury :-)

Re:Correction

dws on 2004-09-20T16:58:01

Being on jury duty means both a lot of time waiting around to get to the selection process, and then, if selected, the possibility of a fair amount of time waiting on break while the court deals with scheduling problems (e.g., "the arresting officer is in a separate court down the hall right now, come back in an hour.")