Friday, June 17, 2011

Jury Duty

More than a month ago I received a jury summons in the mail. This postal package would make the majority of New York City residents cringe and complain. But not I! I enjoy jury duty.

I've served jury duty a number of time in the past and I find it relaxing for a number of reasons:
1) It's a break from work
2) You spend a lot of time waiting around which is excellent reading time
3) It's fun to see how annoyed people get who are called to serve
4) Occasionally you hear how annoyed they are they tell you their life stories
5) You get a glimpse of how the judicial process works on a very small scale
6) I'm a big believer in civic duty.

As messed up as I think our justice system is at times, I'm happy that we have it. I can have an opinion and not be physically tortured by it (regardless of how I feel at specific times when it comes to the reception of my opinion).

People convene to one of the many courts in lower Manhattan and wait to potentially be called on a jury or to be dismissed after serving jury duty for a few days.

I reported to a very new court and the jury assembly room was packed. In the midst I saw someone familiar. None other than Sarah Jessica Parker. (Man, she's skinny!) Despite my wanting to tell her to eat a steak and put on some weight, I left her alone.

We all submitted our summons to the clerk and the name calling began. A round of 50-75 people (including Sarah Jessica Parker) were called up to a room. I was not included in that batch so I sat and watched Rachael Ray make a yummy lasagna.

In the next group, my name was called. Up I went with another 60 people to a court room.

1 comment:

M said...

What's the conclusion? I'm dying to know!

I've never had to serve on a jury. I got called once but got out of it on some technicality--can't remember exactly what happened. I've heard from others that, like you, they don't mind jury duty b/c it's so interesting to see the justice system at work and hear the cases, etc.

Nice job on that civic duty! (And random star sighting!)