My guess is that I’ve thought more about jury duty than most folks.  With my dad being a trail lawyer and our shared love of Perry Mason, I’ve known about juries from childhood. 

About 35 years ago I got a summons for jury duty but despite sitting patiently in the basement of the Government Center every day for a week, I didn’t get impaneled.  On Friday afternoon they released me and said I didn’t need to return.

Right before Christmas I got the Summons in the mail.  Things have changed somewhat in 35 years (doh!).  The biggest change is that you don’t have to show up on Monday morning and sit all week.  You get assigned a group number and twice a day you check online (or call in) to see if your group needs to go in.  One thing that hasn’t changed much is the stipend.  It’s not enough to pay for parking downtown (which is just outrageous) so if you are on a fixed income, if you drive and park, it’s like you’re paying to get on a jury.  I took the bus.

My group didn’t get called in until mid-day on Thursday (12:15 notice that you have to be at the Government Center at 1:30).  The waiting area is now on the 24^th floor and is referred to as “The Jar”.  Hmmmm.   There were 33 of us in the room; orientation took 15 minutes and at 2 p.m.  they pulled the first group of 22.  That left 11 of us, not enough for a jury. I assumed at some point 10 folks would come back and then there would be enough of us if they needed to call a new group.  Nope, at 2:15, the 11 of us left in the room were sent home and told we didn’t need to come back in the morning or the following week.  Our service is complete – we won’t be eligible again for 4 years.  (This puts me above the required age limit so I can decline with no reason if I get called again.)

45 minutes of jury duty.  I spent more time on the bus than doing my civic duty.  And if you add all the time I spent researching how it works these days, rates at downtown parking ramps, bus routes and senior discounts not to mention the weather….. way more prep time than jury time. 

I’m not begrudging the time – I do actually think of it as my civic duty.  I know I wouldn’t want to be on trial and have it go wrong because you couldn’t find enough folks for a jury.  Although I do think it would have been more fun to actually get impaneled and see a real trial!

Any good jury duty stories?