Jury duty over

[figment]

Dismissed. Hooray! I guess they didn't want someone with extensive experience in the Middle East and fairly strong views on religious persecution and immigration on that particular case. I thought they might not.

Hooray! I don't have to try to do two jobs at once. Phew.

Comments

[jgs42.livejournal.com]

I've gotten the jury duty questionnaire in the mail twice. Once I filled it in and wasn't even picked to come in to sit around on the hard bench. The second time (more recently) I got a date to come in and sit around but was dismissed over the phone the morning of. (If I recall correctly I was supposed to come in on January 2.) Maybe it's just the luck of the draw or maybe one of my questionnaire answers was unattractive to one of the attorneys...

[birdfigment.livejournal.com]

The entire 10 years I lived in MN, I was never called, never sent questionnaires, nothing. Here, I have now been called once for DC jury duty and once for Federal jury duty - so I guess I have that out of the way. But I think this demonstrates the smaller size of the pool here relative to the number of court cases. You're just more likely to get called. The earlier call - the DC one - all I did was wait; I was never even on a selection panel. This one, I was on the selection panel, but I am sure I turned the government attorneys off by having opinions about immigration and religious persecution and the Middle East... I got a questionnaire and a phone number to call for this one, but alas, I called the number and it just said, "lucky you! You get to report at 8 AM!" I don't remember the questionnaire having anything on it that would be particularly damning/easy to eliminate you by - did yours have anything of substance on it?

[jgs42.livejournal.com]

Anything of substance? Not really. Age, sex, ethnicity, education, home address are probably the things that could have been used as screens. Maybe profession, I don't recall.

[whthorse.livejournal.com]

Great news. I was surprised that the trial was set for 6 weeks long. That would have really put a cramp in things.

[birdfigment.livejournal.com]

Yah. Federal trial instead of DC...which I guess makes it longer. It also meant it was in a different courthouse than the DC one, and that they pay you $40 a day (instead of $4 a day or whatever it is at the DC one). It was actually a case that had been transferred from Detroit! The only bummer is that it sounded really interesting - but also difficult. I probably would not have been a very good juror for the case - too emotionally involved.

6 weeks of trying to do my job at CTE on the evenings and weekends would have been horrible, I have to say. I am so relieved that I was dismissed.