Sunshine and Light

Jury duty

Last week I had jury duty. And despite what I’ve been told, letting the clerk of court know that I had an engineering degree AND that I’m an IT business analyst did not get me out of jury duty. Later I was talking with another juror who was an engineer, and he’d been told the same thing. Lies! All lies!

Regardless, it was kind of an interesting experience. We ended up with a personal injury case, where there was a fender bender, which aggravated a pre-existing back condition and rendered the hit party unable to work. That was so sad. I felt for him, truly.

Some thoughts:

-I loved that the defendant’s name was Smith and his lawyer’s name was Jones.
-Our judge was a marine who served in Vietnam and got two bronze stars. And he thanked our bitching, moaning selves for service to our country.
-At one point the plaintiff’s lawyer got crosswise with the judge. The judge gave him an instruction, and the lawyer either didn’t understand or else tried to go there anyway. The judge darn near leaped across the bench.
-Court rooms are not as pretty as they look on tv. The woodwork was all there, but so was the stuff piled up in the corners.
-Under things that suck – having to ask the 50 year old “tip staff” man for a place to pump milk. And then getting to use a deliberating room for this adventure while he stood guard outside. Courts: Not a nursing mom friendly environment.
-The defendant’s lawyer was talking to the defendant about which cars he had, and their colors. He had a gold Cadillac Seville for his personal car, and he drove a yellow cab for work. The lawyer kind of laughed, but she had to ask: “What color was the yellow cab?”

Overall an interesting, and somewhat depressing experience. The proceedings were interesting, but seeing someone whose life fell into shambles over a fender bender was depressing. Glad I did it, but I don't want to go again.

posted by MyHusbandRules @ 9:17 AM