(no subject)

[rivka]

I have jury duty today. Lydia is submitting a grant that's due tomorrow. This is what you call suboptimal timing.

I am just praying that because I am a hugely pregnant highly educated white psychologist and recent crime victim (burglary), no one will want me on their jury.

Fortunately, there is a quiet jury waiting room in addition to the one where they play Muzak, allow conversation, and plan to show movies. Also fortunately, you can buy wireless connectivity for $5.95 a day - a real bargain when you're going to need to be sending grant bits back and forth to your boss. Also also fortunately, there are multiple outlets for people who need to recharge their laptops.

Unfortunately, my work e-mail website is down, as it frequently is. The access website periodically - well, frequently - reverts to "under construction." Why, I have no idea. How long, I also have no idea. Also unfortunately, it turns out that if you are excused from a particular jury by the judge during voir dire, you don't get to go home. You have to go back to the waiting room and see if another judge wants you later. So my relatively low juror number is no help at all.

When I got here this morning there was a very long line of people waiting to go through the metal detector. Then they put us in a room and had us watch a video about jury service. It began with hilarious clips from old movies showing courtroom confessions, proceeded to warn us that our trial wouldn't really be like that, and finished with an explanation of the roles of all the people involved in a trial and the critical importance of jurors to democracy. Fun stuff.

Updated to add: They called me for jury selection just as I was finishing the previous paragraph, which is why the entry ended so abruptly. I was in the courtroom for about an hour and was dismissed for cause because that my pregnancy makes jury service a hardship. Sadly, that doesn't dismiss me for the day, even though I will be incrementally more pregnant each subsequent time they try to empanel me. Still, at least I'm back where I can work.

Comments

[eeyorerin]

I had to watch that video during jury duty too! I wonder if it is standard issue.

Did you get Helpful Pamphlets as well?

[ricevermicelli.livejournal.com]

Lady, they are going to take one look at you and politely decline to impanel you. In the event that some question doesn't knock you out of the running, the time it takes you to waddle up to the bench will be more than plenty for the judge and both sets of lawyers to each, individually, conclude that you should not be on this jury.

You may be at the courthouse all day though.

The video they show you guys sounds way more entertaining than the ones they show in MA. We just get lectured on our civic duty.

[kate_nepveu]

If I were still doing trial work, I wouldn't want you on my jury, because of the "hugely pregnant" part--what if you went into labor during deliberations?

So, fear not.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I just got released for cause from my first jury selection, based on the "hugely pregnant" factor. I was honest and said that I didn't think I was going to go into labor in the next few days, but that it was uncomfortable for me to sit for extended periods, and the judge let me go.

Man, just sitting in the chairs in the jury box for voir dire was uncomfortable. They looked okay, but they were hard as a rock. I'm hoping that subsequent judges are equally kind.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

No helpful pamphlets, but I did get three crisp new $5 bills "for my expenses." Let's see: parking, $10. Net access, which I suppose is optional for most people, $5.95. I haven't had lunch yet, and they already owe me money.

[eeyorerin]

They owe you at least 95 cents so far!

We didn't get any money for expenses during jury selection or while I was on the jury. (Then again, parking was free.) We did get a free dinner during the last day of deliberations, though, because they didn't want us leaving when we were so close to reaching a verdict. (Being escorted from the courthouse to the restaurant by a coterie of baliffs is one of my more surreal memories of the experience.)

[pbrim.livejournal.com]

Here in Texas, jury duty pay is a whole $6 for the first day. It used to be $6 every day, but a few years back they raised it to $40 a day after the first, the first raise in over 50 years. The first time I got called, I lived in Austin. I got picked for a jury and served for a week, getting paid $6 per day and paying $8 per day for parking.

[kcobweb.livejournal.com]

Last time I got called for jury duty, it was my due date - March 2nd - and the phone rang and a voice said that they wanted me to come in for jury duty on Friday (2 days away). I literally just started laughing, and explained that I was 40 weeks pregnant at that moment, and couldn't promise I'd be anywhere on Friday except maybe the hospital. She said, "Oh, okay then! Never mind!" and hung up. Thank the gods I didn't have to go to the courthouse to prove it to them. :)

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think if I were a couple weeks closer to my due date I could have gotten permission not to come in. As it is, I'm going to need to let each judge decide on their own whether I ought to be excused or not.

Argh.

[aendr.livejournal.com]

That's a bit measly. Over here (UK) there's no standard payment, but expenses may be claimed. The maximum loss of earnings varies from £30 to £215 a day depending on the length of service, then there's bus/train fares (receipted expenses) or mileage (around 30p/mile) and subsistance (£5-12 per day for meals).