Happy Friday to all. It’s all downhill next week for me as I was summoned for Jury Duty.
Why do most of us hate it so much? Feel free to share your own stories of jury duty in the comments section, but here is my experience.
I feel like I’m the one in trouble…check in the night before to see if you have to appear in court the next morning. If you do, there is a good chance you could sit there ALL day and do absolutely nothing. Waste a day of your life to be told you can go home and come back tomorrow.
What if you do get picked to enter the courtroom? Last time in there was a large questionnaire to answer. Which the lawyers then reviewed and started the Voir Dire (fancy word for lawyers picking what they believe is the best profiled jurors to get the outcome they want).
If you don’t get picked? Back to the other room like a cattle call or maybe go home and….you guessed it….call back again that night to see if you get to go back the next day.
The two times in the past I was summoned in, I was unfortunately chosen. Once for a criminal trial and the other for a civil trial. Civil is better because you can divide blame, if necessary, on both parties. Makes things quicker and way less painful for the jurors.
The criminal trial I was on years ago was an absolute joke. Most obvious “this guy is guilty and we’ll be out of here in 3 minutes” turned into days because the judge wouldn’t let us leave the juror room as a hung jury and we were told we aren’t leaving until we come to a decision. 10 jurors of the 12 said guilty. 2 jurors (well picked by the defendant’s lawyer) had nothing better to do than get paid their $7.50 a day with their free lunch and hold everyone else up. It got to a point the 10 of us all changed our vote to not guilty and let the guy go because of the 2 jurors we knew just wouldn’t budge and the rest of us had jobs and lives to return to. The system may be considered the best in the world by some, but I’d question that for sure.
I would love to hear your experience if you have served. Please share!
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