Your Serve

here's how it happened.

when we first came up to the courtroom, there were seventy-five of us. the judge introduced herself as a superior court judge and told us that the trial could last as long as twenty five court days. the clerk asked how many of us were ready to step up for this jury.

six did.

out of seventy-five, six said okay, i'll serve.

the rest of us filled out hardship forms. the teenager next to me swore under his breath at the clerk when she made him call his job to find out how long he could get jury duty pay for. he didn't call. he growled and flipped her off behind her back when she pressed him again. he knew that Abercrombe & Fitch would cover his salary, but he didn't want to serve. if he had slumped any lower, he would have been under the chair.

i claimed a hardship deferal because i wasn't sure how long the SFS would pay me and due to the fact that my boss will be screwed without me. they asked me to call work and the new woman in HR read me the employee handbook. i'll get paid no matter how long i serve for.

when it was my turn, the judge called me in and told me that my boss being screwed wasn't a hardship for me. she was very nice about it. what could i say?

after an hour of people being excused for various reasons there were about a dozen of us left, including the teenager. so out of seventy-five, we were whittled down to eighteen who could possibly serve.

so i need to go back in for voir dire on wednesday. (i just looked it up. it means "to speak the truth" and it's what they call the jury questioning.)

they had me fill out a questionnaire which asked me lots of questions about how i felt about corporations, lawsuits, large awards, the navy, healthcare, cancer and asbestos.

one would assume someone in the navy got cancer and is suing for being exposed to asbestos. and i'm supposed to serve on the jury.

i went back to work and told my boss and called HR. the symphony is off on tour next week and then he's going to Europe for a conference. if i get selected though, i'm sitting in that court room until March.

part of me feels like it's my duty to serve. part of me can sense just how godawful boring it's going to be. part of me feels like loyalty to the symphony should be enough to squirm out of serving -- but that would entail perjury as there isn't any real reason why i can't serve. no dependant children. no studies. no essential work to be done. no financial burden. no vacation plans.

so unless the lawyers object to me, unless my honest answers to their questions bug the lawyers for their lawyers reasons; i'm on a jury.

i'm an american. i guess this is my job. to listen to a bunch of legalese and in the end decide if someone was wronged or if things just went wrong.

on the questionaire i wrote that i thought corporations were often unethical but i also wrote that americans need to accept responsibility more often. and to realize that not everything is someone's fault.

if i'm on a jury, i probably won't be able to blog. certainly not about the case.

i've been thinking about it a lot. i suppose i'll just go and answer their questions and let them choose me or not. i just wish it wasn't such a long trial.

i've been saying i need a vacation, but this isn't really what i had in mind.