Jury duty

In January I was summoned for jury duty, scheduled to serve February 3rd and 4th. I don't think anyone likes to serve on jury duty. Most of the people there were hoping to get out of it or at least put in their two days and be done with it. It is however a necessary part of the judicial system and makes for some semblance of fairness in our courts. It is quite the official looking summons and clearly outlines the penalties for not complying with it. 

So I reported for jury duty at 7:30 in the morning, found a comfortable spot in the jury room and did my crossword puzzles and read the paper. This was my second time having jury duty. The first go around I didn't get selected for a jury pool and it was a long boring two days. This time I brought some work and read and was better prepared for the wait. So much for planning. I was selected to be part of the second jury pool they picked. Up to the courtroom, lots of questions from the lawyers and you had to give a brief bio of your life. I didn't make it onto the jury so about an hour or so later I was back in the jury room to wait for the next round. Fortunately they didn't need any jurors for the afternoon and we were all let go early.  

The Jury Room

Day 2 had a later start since we were all checked in, so at 8:30 I was waiting again. They have wi-fi in the room so I got some work done, read some more and worked on my crossword. Around 11 they decided they didn't need anymore juries that day and let us go. My service those two days keeps me from being selected for two years now. 

While it's a pain to drop everything and take those two days it's a civic obligation and if I was on trial I'd want that right and to have people willing to do it. The company I work for, Ruan Transport, supports this and pays you while on jury duty. My service was short but it felt good to do it and perform my civic duty.