So the government finally caught up with me.....it was time to report for my civic duty. I had never been summoned before for jury duty, and I've known people who've been asked multiple times. So new experience for me, and yea it got me out of work 2 nights this week.
I had to report to the Municipal Court in downtown Phx, not too bad of a setup. Traffic was so-so, big plus that it was only 20 min from my house. The person going over the agenda for the day said the court was not a felony court, but misdemeanor, which made an average trial length 1-3 days if not less since a lot gets settled before going to trial, not too bad if by chance I couldn't get out of it. They had the assembly room designed for comfort (of sorts) while we waited to see if we got selected. They had breakfast food available, had movies and television, wireless internet capability (although I forgot the laptop, but now I'll know for future), had a reading room with jigsaw puzzles, and an hour and a half lunch hour designed into the agenda for the day.
The day started out with the token movie about "what an honor it is to be asked to serve", very cheesy, didn't have me won over and I fall for the infomercials. After they explained the selection process we just hung out. The first movie I watched was National Treasure. Then I listened to my ipod and read a book while they played the news/Good Morning AZ, and then wandered into the "quiet" room and worked on a 550 piece puzzle.
They called for jury panels (the people who actually make it to the courtroom to see the judge/lawyers and either get chosen to sit on the jury or return to the assembly room) 4 times. The first three I didn't make the random list. I was called for the fourth panel, but then the case ended up pleading out before we even made it to the courtroom. So it was 230 and they dismissed our panel for the rest of the day. Yea! Good thing I would hate to get stuck up in a trial that would hinder our vacation weekend. And now I'm a better American for it. :-) Free for the next 18 months!!!
1 comment:
Dang, your jury duty sounds a lot better than my jury duty. I went last week to the one in Mesa and they just had ONE room for us and two TVs but no snacks. What the hell?! I can’t complain though because I read some of my book and then watched The Office on my iPod. I did get called in and we heard a little bit about the case but didn’t get picked. All-in-all, not a bad day.
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