And so I received notice that I have to call in for jury duty... AGAIN.
I swear, I get called for jury duty more than anybody I know. Hell, just since starting this blog I've been summoned September 2003, February 2006, May 2008, and December 2009... and at least three times before then. That's seven times when most people I know are lucky to be called once. I guess I should feel lucky that it's been four years since my last one. I think that's the longest I've ever gone between notices, as I am usually summoned at least every two years.
I don't know how jury duty works for everybody else, but here you are given a time to call in to see if there's a trial needing your service. If there's not, you keep calling in over a two week period to see if you're needed. So, basically, I have to completely rearrange my life for TWO WEEKS when I'm lucky to be able to schedule that much vacation time after planning months in advance.
How in the hell is this considered acceptable?
Surely the court has a FUCKING CALENDAR where they can ACTUALLY SCHEDULE THE FUCKING TRIALS so they can FUCKING CALL A JURY IN without DICKING PEOPLE AROUND with this stupid "Call us!" bullshit. I mean, seriously, TWO FUCKING WEEKS?!?
My disgust for our legal system is so intense that I always worry that I'm going to be slapped with a contempt charge whenever I have to show up in court.
But how is that my fault when our courts are so contemptible?
It's all I can do to contain myself while being subjected to the outrageous crap you have to endure for "justice." I put "justice" in quotes because the last trial I served at had a prosecutor who expected the jury to find some guy guilty of drunk driving... WHEN THE OFFICER LET HIM DRIVE HOME AFTER HE WAS STOPPED! Yeah, that wasn't a waste of my fucking time and our tax dollars.
And yet... I'm not expected to be in contempt of the court system.
Right.
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In California, we only have to be “calling in” for a week, and thankfully in my county, they do it now on the web so you don’t have to pick up the phone at all. The court here seems to run pretty well where they mostly have a good idea of how many people they will need for a trial, etc. That being said, it’s not a super fun experience by any means. I’m glad my work pays for my time while there at least.
I think we have web check-in as well. I guess I should check on that. I did fill out a texting number, so it would be cool if they could just text me rather than making me call in. But I don’t think they’re there yet.
They explain it pretty clearly at our courthouse. You’re not just serving as a juror, you’re serving as a threat to make people settle cases at the last possible second, which apparently happens ALL DAY LONG. It’s not the courts as much as the attorneys who refuse to settle until the jurors are on their way down the hall to the courtroom. This happened to a friend the other day – she was in the jury pool room, got called to a courtroom, then she and the other potential jurors were dismissed because the case had been settled as they came up the elevators.
Well that’s a load of crap. If you don’t settle before the jury is called to appear, Then you go to trial and the loser pays the court costs. Maybe THEN people would settle their problems in a timely manner so I don’t have to set aside TWO WEEKS of my life!
Hmm, that does seem like an awful lot of jury summonses for one person. (BTW, “summonses” sounds wrong to me, but I checked the dictionary, and it is, in fact, the proper plural form of “summons.”)
Calling in daily for two weeks is ridiculous! Here you call in the night before, and if they don’t need you, you are off the hook. . . and won’t get a summons from that court for the next two years. Humph.
It’s not daily… they give you a new date to call if they don’t need you… usually every three days or so until the TWO WEEKS are up.
I have only been called for jury duty once. You have some crazy kind of luck to get putting pulled for it.
Yes… but it’s all BAD luck! 🙁
I have yet to be called in for jury duty and I’m 35. *knock on wood*
I’ve been old enough to serve for 20 years now…and yet, never summoned.