![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Bullet dodging
Oct. 19th, 2023 09:16 pmI got a summons for jury duty couple of months ago. The day they picked was no worse than any other day, so I let it stand. I went in on Wednesday.
First, I had a little disaster about getting there on time, which is that I set my alarm for 6:30 PM. Thus I got up much later than intended. At least it was early enough that I was only half an hour late, and in practice that's really only 15 minutes late, because people are still checking in when it's 15 minutes past the appointed hour. Anyway, it turned out there were three or four other people who were similarly late (not quite as late as me) and had to check in after the spiel by the court officer about how important it was that we had all come etc. etc.
When I was checking in, he handed me a little piece of paper that said "grand jury" and I was like "I'm here for the regular jury, I did the grand jury once, and while it was in fact fascinating, that's enough for one lifetime." He had no sympathy. Apparently, they needed to beef up the existing panel of grand jurors which was impaneled two weeks ago, which they said was due to scheduling problems with people's vacations, and I wonder if it's really due to Covid. It could be vacations, since we are entering the holiday season.
They had given me a little card with a little number on it when they checked me in, and there was more spiel about how important it was that we were there and what jury duty was all about and blah blah blah. (I wonder if there's some way to test out of this stuff and get there at 10 AM instead. I've been to jury duty several times, and they always do this crap, some of it on video and some of it in person. Of course, there's always somebody for whom it's the first time.)
Then they said everybody with cards numbered 1-65 follow court officer over there to the other courtroom for the grand jury. Well, I'm 57 (preprinted with my name, so it wasn't how late I was). So I go, being sad about this. Last time I was on the grand jury, they only met once a week, and it was pretty tolerable. Now they apparently meet three times a week, and while it's only for the morning, it's less tolerable in terms of interfering with your life. So I was really worried. I mean, work has deadlines etc.
In the other courtroom the judge explains the whole grand jury thing, and then he allows as to how it's a noticeable impact on your life, and calls for volunteers, saying that people who are retired or otherwise don't have as many demands on their time might be more appropriate, and two people volunteer. Unfortunately, they need 7. So they start calling people. Fortunately, starting with 1. They interviewed people one by one, and I don't know what happened to them, they went out the back of the courtroom never to be seen again. They got up to about 25 before they said they had successfully acquired enough people, so I guess they were letting most of them go after they pled inconvenience.
So, I got my book read for an hour, with some stressful concern while I was listening to them say "jurors 7 through 10 please come up".
First, I had a little disaster about getting there on time, which is that I set my alarm for 6:30 PM. Thus I got up much later than intended. At least it was early enough that I was only half an hour late, and in practice that's really only 15 minutes late, because people are still checking in when it's 15 minutes past the appointed hour. Anyway, it turned out there were three or four other people who were similarly late (not quite as late as me) and had to check in after the spiel by the court officer about how important it was that we had all come etc. etc.
When I was checking in, he handed me a little piece of paper that said "grand jury" and I was like "I'm here for the regular jury, I did the grand jury once, and while it was in fact fascinating, that's enough for one lifetime." He had no sympathy. Apparently, they needed to beef up the existing panel of grand jurors which was impaneled two weeks ago, which they said was due to scheduling problems with people's vacations, and I wonder if it's really due to Covid. It could be vacations, since we are entering the holiday season.
They had given me a little card with a little number on it when they checked me in, and there was more spiel about how important it was that we were there and what jury duty was all about and blah blah blah. (I wonder if there's some way to test out of this stuff and get there at 10 AM instead. I've been to jury duty several times, and they always do this crap, some of it on video and some of it in person. Of course, there's always somebody for whom it's the first time.)
Then they said everybody with cards numbered 1-65 follow court officer over there to the other courtroom for the grand jury. Well, I'm 57 (preprinted with my name, so it wasn't how late I was). So I go, being sad about this. Last time I was on the grand jury, they only met once a week, and it was pretty tolerable. Now they apparently meet three times a week, and while it's only for the morning, it's less tolerable in terms of interfering with your life. So I was really worried. I mean, work has deadlines etc.
In the other courtroom the judge explains the whole grand jury thing, and then he allows as to how it's a noticeable impact on your life, and calls for volunteers, saying that people who are retired or otherwise don't have as many demands on their time might be more appropriate, and two people volunteer. Unfortunately, they need 7. So they start calling people. Fortunately, starting with 1. They interviewed people one by one, and I don't know what happened to them, they went out the back of the courtroom never to be seen again. They got up to about 25 before they said they had successfully acquired enough people, so I guess they were letting most of them go after they pled inconvenience.
So, I got my book read for an hour, with some stressful concern while I was listening to them say "jurors 7 through 10 please come up".
