I'm currently waiting to hear from the juror coordinator, sometime this week, regarding my jury duty selection. I've been told that courthouse time runs very different than real world time, so this wait could get interesting.
I was summoned for jury duty. It is a little amazing that this is a first for me. I am not sure how I've dodged it for so long. At first, I didn't really mind being summoned. I sort of understand that civic duty. It sounded somewhat interesting.....in theory.
As the details unfold, I am no longer intrigued.
The summons gave me a date to report to the court house for orientation. That seemed Ok, as I also had a dentist appointment that day, so my husband was already prepared to take time off work to be home with the kids.
Next, was a questionnaire to fill out, asking a variety of personal details. This startled me a bit. I understand the desire to find a jury of peers, so they would need some information on me. I was a bit troubled by the level of information they were asking. I was downright appalled at the level of information they were asking after listing a note at the top of the page that stated that the information I provided would be available to all parties involved in the court cases. It was absurdly comical that they were actually asking me to provide very detailed directions to my house, along with the number and ages of my children, along with the name, career, and employment schedule of my spouse. Is it me, or were they actually suggesting that I give very specific instructions...to someone accused of breaking the law... on how to find me and my children at a time when my husband would be away at work? Maybe they were wanting me to provide detailed information on how to get to my house at a time when no one would be home???
No thank you.
At the bottom of the page, there was a small footnote that said I could place an asterisk in place of any answer that I would prefer to answer directly to the judge. I exercised that option for every question that I felt was too personal or dangerous to me or my family. I had no problem answering all the questions about whether I worked in the court system, or whether I had been involved in any court cases before.
The summons went on to say that jury duty is never convenient, so please consider serving at this time, instead of trying to be excused. There were two reasons for excuse...1 was medical (if you provided a note from your doctor)....the other was if you were a convicted criminal who did not serve your time (huh? Were they sending these summons out through the wrong courthouse database?)
I followed the orientation instructions to the letter. It told the exact place to park, where they would be able to validate parking. Unfortunately, that parking structure has a height clearance that is too short for my big van. Fortunately, I anticipated this, and borrowed my husband's car that afternoon. I walked from the parking garage to the courthouse with a slew of other jurors and then received the opportunity to stand in the security line with them.
It was rather amusing to me the level of schizophrenia that is involved at the courthouse. (I'm not speaking of mentally ill folks committing crimes.) On one hand, the summons thanks me for assisting the judge in my civic duty. On the other hand, it threatens me with police action if I fail to show up. I am told to arrive at a specific time....along with 300 other summoned citizens.....and the courthouse workers grow quickly annoyed by the congestion in the security line. The security process in itself made me question which side of the criminal line I was actually standing on! When the security guards started barking orders about folks needing to remove their belts before walking through the metal detectors, I was almost tempted to look down and see if I was actually wearing a prison jumpsuit! Were we there as common citizens "helping" out our judicial system.....or were we just potential criminals in the making?
I made my way to the jury orientation room and stood in the line to check in. The efficiency of the place just blossomed from that point. For the 300 citizens summoned to orientation that day, they had a whopping 150 chairs available, and about 80 additional chairs squeezed into a room that probably breaks fire code when all 300 of us were in it. We each stood in line to be greeted by the clerks and coordinators. We were handed a packet of papers and a pen. The purpose of the pen was to write down our juror number on the front of our packet.
After the judge gave a little pep talk as to the importance of the jury, he read the official summons and turned our attention over to the juror coordinators. A lady actually stood at the podium and read a roll call of every one of our 300 names. She then told us our juror number. The numbers were pre-determined before we arrived, and they did not change even if no one answered to the name in front of us, so I am still not clear as to why they did not just hand us a packet with our name and juror number on it from the start, and save all that read aloud time.
I was one of the lucky ones.
Out of 300 summoned citizens, the computer randomly assigned me to be juror number 4. Then, the jury coordinator took the first 36 jurors and placed each of us on 1 of 3 jury panels. I was placed on the first panel. A jury panel gets the privelage of serving 2 days a week, for the full business day, for the full 3 months of our service time. Serving two 8-hour days....16 hours a week for 3 months.....that is a part-time job! Honestly, who has the time and ability to drop their current life and pick up a part-time job at the courthouse?
Actually, they pay minimum wage, so folks who are out of work might consider volunteering for jury duty in order to pick up a part-time job.
The remaining 264 folks were placed on the "alternate" list, to fill in when the regular panel members need to be absent. They have to call every Friday evening, to find out if they need to show up for jury duty the following week.
The panel folks were gathered and taken to a court room for further details. Here, the jury coordinators asked us how this panel schedule would work for us. At least half of the panel folks explain why they can't just pick up a part-time job like this. Many of them suggest that they could manage 1 single day a week. That makes me wonder why they don't just set up more panels overall and schedule them 1 day a week, cutting back on a lot of the scheduling hassle.
A few folks mentioned they work out of town all week long, and return for weekends. That was where we were informed that we have the option to reschedule our jury duty commitment one time. After that, we are expected to serve the next time we are summoned. The current summons schedule ends before Jersey #2's upcoming surgery, and I can't risk being re-summoned during her surgery and recovery timeline, so I chose to stick this out.
As the caregiver of 5 young children, I do not see a way to pick up this part-time job at the courthouse. Even if I could find babysitters to work those two full days a week, paying them would cost more than I would be making. The Referee could alter his work schedule to fit in 1 day at home, but not 2. The committment is so big that it just does not make any sense.
The jury coordinator says she will do all she can to work it out for us. She says there are folks on the alternate list who would like to be on a panel, so she thinks it may all work out. (So, why didn't they just take volunteers for the panels first?) But, she needs time to calculate and will let us all know some time this week. I have no clue what I am going to do if they decide to keep me on a panel.
It will be interesting to see what my Christmas present from the courthouse is this week...
I was summoned for jury duty. It is a little amazing that this is a first for me. I am not sure how I've dodged it for so long. At first, I didn't really mind being summoned. I sort of understand that civic duty. It sounded somewhat interesting.....in theory.
As the details unfold, I am no longer intrigued.
The summons gave me a date to report to the court house for orientation. That seemed Ok, as I also had a dentist appointment that day, so my husband was already prepared to take time off work to be home with the kids.
Next, was a questionnaire to fill out, asking a variety of personal details. This startled me a bit. I understand the desire to find a jury of peers, so they would need some information on me. I was a bit troubled by the level of information they were asking. I was downright appalled at the level of information they were asking after listing a note at the top of the page that stated that the information I provided would be available to all parties involved in the court cases. It was absurdly comical that they were actually asking me to provide very detailed directions to my house, along with the number and ages of my children, along with the name, career, and employment schedule of my spouse. Is it me, or were they actually suggesting that I give very specific instructions...to someone accused of breaking the law... on how to find me and my children at a time when my husband would be away at work? Maybe they were wanting me to provide detailed information on how to get to my house at a time when no one would be home???
No thank you.
At the bottom of the page, there was a small footnote that said I could place an asterisk in place of any answer that I would prefer to answer directly to the judge. I exercised that option for every question that I felt was too personal or dangerous to me or my family. I had no problem answering all the questions about whether I worked in the court system, or whether I had been involved in any court cases before.
The summons went on to say that jury duty is never convenient, so please consider serving at this time, instead of trying to be excused. There were two reasons for excuse...1 was medical (if you provided a note from your doctor)....the other was if you were a convicted criminal who did not serve your time (huh? Were they sending these summons out through the wrong courthouse database?)
I followed the orientation instructions to the letter. It told the exact place to park, where they would be able to validate parking. Unfortunately, that parking structure has a height clearance that is too short for my big van. Fortunately, I anticipated this, and borrowed my husband's car that afternoon. I walked from the parking garage to the courthouse with a slew of other jurors and then received the opportunity to stand in the security line with them.
It was rather amusing to me the level of schizophrenia that is involved at the courthouse. (I'm not speaking of mentally ill folks committing crimes.) On one hand, the summons thanks me for assisting the judge in my civic duty. On the other hand, it threatens me with police action if I fail to show up. I am told to arrive at a specific time....along with 300 other summoned citizens.....and the courthouse workers grow quickly annoyed by the congestion in the security line. The security process in itself made me question which side of the criminal line I was actually standing on! When the security guards started barking orders about folks needing to remove their belts before walking through the metal detectors, I was almost tempted to look down and see if I was actually wearing a prison jumpsuit! Were we there as common citizens "helping" out our judicial system.....or were we just potential criminals in the making?
I made my way to the jury orientation room and stood in the line to check in. The efficiency of the place just blossomed from that point. For the 300 citizens summoned to orientation that day, they had a whopping 150 chairs available, and about 80 additional chairs squeezed into a room that probably breaks fire code when all 300 of us were in it. We each stood in line to be greeted by the clerks and coordinators. We were handed a packet of papers and a pen. The purpose of the pen was to write down our juror number on the front of our packet.
After the judge gave a little pep talk as to the importance of the jury, he read the official summons and turned our attention over to the juror coordinators. A lady actually stood at the podium and read a roll call of every one of our 300 names. She then told us our juror number. The numbers were pre-determined before we arrived, and they did not change even if no one answered to the name in front of us, so I am still not clear as to why they did not just hand us a packet with our name and juror number on it from the start, and save all that read aloud time.
I was one of the lucky ones.
Out of 300 summoned citizens, the computer randomly assigned me to be juror number 4. Then, the jury coordinator took the first 36 jurors and placed each of us on 1 of 3 jury panels. I was placed on the first panel. A jury panel gets the privelage of serving 2 days a week, for the full business day, for the full 3 months of our service time. Serving two 8-hour days....16 hours a week for 3 months.....that is a part-time job! Honestly, who has the time and ability to drop their current life and pick up a part-time job at the courthouse?
Actually, they pay minimum wage, so folks who are out of work might consider volunteering for jury duty in order to pick up a part-time job.
The remaining 264 folks were placed on the "alternate" list, to fill in when the regular panel members need to be absent. They have to call every Friday evening, to find out if they need to show up for jury duty the following week.
The panel folks were gathered and taken to a court room for further details. Here, the jury coordinators asked us how this panel schedule would work for us. At least half of the panel folks explain why they can't just pick up a part-time job like this. Many of them suggest that they could manage 1 single day a week. That makes me wonder why they don't just set up more panels overall and schedule them 1 day a week, cutting back on a lot of the scheduling hassle.
A few folks mentioned they work out of town all week long, and return for weekends. That was where we were informed that we have the option to reschedule our jury duty commitment one time. After that, we are expected to serve the next time we are summoned. The current summons schedule ends before Jersey #2's upcoming surgery, and I can't risk being re-summoned during her surgery and recovery timeline, so I chose to stick this out.
As the caregiver of 5 young children, I do not see a way to pick up this part-time job at the courthouse. Even if I could find babysitters to work those two full days a week, paying them would cost more than I would be making. The Referee could alter his work schedule to fit in 1 day at home, but not 2. The committment is so big that it just does not make any sense.
The jury coordinator says she will do all she can to work it out for us. She says there are folks on the alternate list who would like to be on a panel, so she thinks it may all work out. (So, why didn't they just take volunteers for the panels first?) But, she needs time to calculate and will let us all know some time this week. I have no clue what I am going to do if they decide to keep me on a panel.
It will be interesting to see what my Christmas present from the courthouse is this week...
Okay, you must have been summoned for a different level of grand jury than I was a few years ago. I think mine was U.S. District court... We all met early one morning, went over the "civic duty" stuff and roll call, and then were given a chance to say why we felt we were or were not good candidates to be on a jury. Then, the judge would talk tot hose who didn't want to state their reason in front of the group. Next came a really long wait and then the list was read. I think it was for 3-4 months though, 2 days a week still...
ReplyDeleteI hate to say it but it's no wonder people do anything they can to get out of jury duty. It's a shame, too - it's our obligation as citizens but they make it so completely inconvenient that everyone just dreads it.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the system breeds the inconvenience....and unnecessarily, in my opinion. I got the impression that many folks were willing to serve, just not able to meet such a high demand on their time and resources.
ReplyDeleteI am not clear if something has changed in the process or what, because my experience has been a bit different than what most folks told me to expect (based on their own experiences).