Monday, August 19, 2013

View from Jury Duty

Today was my first day back to work after vacation -- and I spent it on jury duty. I never actually made it out of the jury room -- but, as the nice jury commissioner explained to us in the orientation hour -- just by showing up to do our civic duty we had impact on the judicial system because we were there prepared to serve ... and sometimes cases manage to get themselves setteled once the jury shows up.

I bought it.

Anyway, I never made it out of the jury room. But I did make it up to the cafeteria for lunch -- where this was the view:



Civic duty AND a room with a view. Not a bad first day back to work. Tomorrow I'll get to the 1351 unread email. One thing at a time.

4 comments:

RonF said...

Good for you. Too many people think they're too important to serve on jury duty.

I actually got called in for voir dire once. It was a malpractice case involving a couple of grieving parents and a couple of doctors who they alleged gave him improper care. My problem was I kept having to answer yes to questions like "Do you have any relatives who work in health care", "Have you ever been involved in a lawsuit", "Have you yourself ever worked in health care", etc. So I was discharged.

Matthew said...

I've served on two juries -- both criminal cases -- gut wrenching that someone's life is in your hands, but its a valuable experience and you'll never serve if you don't show up to be selected so good for you.

SUSAN RUSSELL said...

Appreciate the "strokes" for showing up but here in Los Angeles County it's not an option NOT to show up for jury duty ... Seriously!!

Unknown said...

Indeed. It can be too much to bear the thought that you're among the people deciding the fate of someone. But it can be a positive and rewarding experience, especially if you know you have made the right choice to the best of your knowledge, with the information and evidence you were given. Congratulations!

Doris Carver @ TheAdvocateAttorney.com