Jury Duty

I was up early. My anxiety level was up as well. I was wishing that I just had the day to myself. I could do that but then if I don’t report to jury duty, I could also be arrested. That probably would make for an interesting blog.

I got to the court house ten minutes before I was due and spent the next 20 minutes trying to find the right floor and the right room. I rode on an elevator to a dead end floor with an elderly lady and her walker and her friend, who looked totally confused. The woman with the walker is what I would label, a Juror Junky, one who babbled on about the procedures and what to expect, while we waited for the elevator to take us back downstairs and start all over. She kept talking while I broke out into a sweat, only wanting her to stop talking, so that I could get to my destination on time.

Eventually, I was successful and found the right room, with a line of jurors walking into the room. I took up my place at the end. After sitting and getting a questionnaire to fill out, I am called up front and shown my summons card and told that I should be across the street in the Civil Court and not here, in Criminal Court. That makes sense to me as I look at my summons and the yellow highlighted information. My veil of stupidity is lifted as I read Room 700 on the 7th floor of the building across the street. I am in Room 418, 4th floor of the wrong building. If I thought my anxiety level was up before…I am just about up on the ceiling.

I make a mad dash, down the stairs, out of the building and across the street. I go through another security checkpoint, and find an elevator to the 7th floor. The floor is crowded with people everywhere, standing or seating in chairs, talking. I am not late and hand my summons to a man, who hands it to one of the woman in charge of jurors. She tells me I am fine, and points to Box 3, Seat 15, as she hands me a clipboard and another form to answer. This one is two sided. I race through it and stop at the part where I have to list my children’s names, education level, employment, and tell if they live with me. There are four lines. I have nine children and use the lines, and the spaces in between the questions, and the margins to list all of them. That took me a bit but I finished it. I hand it in and am told to go and wait in the lounge.

The lounge is filled and I choose a lone table and sit down, pull out a notebook to write in. The table is wobbling back and forth, so I write on my lap, until we are all called back to the courtroom. We are told that there were two cases and they solved them without a jury and we are free to go. We are given our money voucher. I sign mine over not wanting to go into another building and wait in another line

It is now 10:00. Lots of work for spending a little time serving the law. My assessment is that I was happy to be done with jury duty for now. I know that I will be called again and hope it is longer then a month. I was in the Criminal Court a month ago and now in the Civil Court.

Jury duty is just that – a duty. I have to say that those who were at the civil court were much nicer then the ones in the criminal court. Then again that makes perfect sense to me, since those in the criminal system probably see and hear the worst acts of mankind. But at least the questionnaire that they provide me with was only one sided.