About a month ago, I got the wonderful piece of mail every American dreams of. No, not the Publisher's Clearing House sweepstakes entry form - jury summons.
There was a questionnaire to fill out and send back in to the court; I thought about checking the box that says I no longer live in DeKalb county and getting out of it. I didn't. Anyway, the paper had a tear-off part to keep, with instructions and a phone number to call the night before your date to find out if they actually need you to come. My number was 88. I called, and they were wanting numbers 1-91. So close.
So this morning I reported to the DeKalb county courthouse jury assembly room at about 8:00am for the 8:15 call time. I was amazed at the number of people who did not call last night to find out whether or not they needed to report. They made that trip only to be told they could leave immediately. I was also amazed at the number of people who were really late.
About 8:30, we started orientation. A judge came in to tell us how we were doing the highest civic duty. We watched a video about jury selection. They told us a few more things, including how often the cases settle before going to trial just because the jurors are waiting in the assembly room. I guess that the people are procrastinating, thinking the other side will back down, up until the last minute, and then decide they really don't want whatever they are asking for or trying to keep that badly.
They called out 15 names and said the rest of us were free to go, that the other cases had been settled. I left the courthouse about 9:30.
Not too bad for $15. I think I actually made more per hour with jury duty than I did working at the bank.
So that was my jury duty experience. Nothing exciting. I did get to wear a snazzy blue sticker that said "JUROR DeKalb County" on it. That's about all. Moral of the story: don't be afraid to do your civic duty. It's probably not as painful as you think.
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