Jury Duty
One of the obligations of citizenship in this country is to make yourself available for jury duty when and if called. We cannot pontificate about the importance of the rule of law, a topic that gets mentioned every five minutes or more on cable news these days, if we do not help to support the judicial system by making yourself available to become part of the proverbial jury of our peers to adjudicate criminal and civil conflicts. But nonetheless, jury duty is an annoyance for most of us and we are probably all guilty of finding, trying to find or at least thinking about finding an excuse not to serve when called. There are genuinely bad times in our lives when jury duty just doesn’t work due to previously scheduled events or travel or perhaps particularly busy moments in life or work. The problem is that literally everyone has those problems and it is most often just a matter of priority that causes us to prefer not to be bothered by upending our routines to do jury service.
I am currently living under a jury summons for the Federal Court System of the Southern District of California. I was sent the jury duty notice about six weeks ago and duly noted that it was to start just after I was scheduled to return from my motorcycle trip to Spain, and yet well before my scheduled trip to New York for Kim’s Lincoln Center Cabaret Convention show. Like all jury duty summons, this one had a specified timeframe for availability, in this case running two weeks, but there is that added awareness that if empaneled, one might need to serve out a much longer term in the jury box and thus run afoul of more plans than the two week hiatus might suggest.
The beauty of retirement is that one presumably has greater control over one’s schedule. That is certainly my case. I do not have a routine daily work venue to attend, nor do I have daily meetings that occur and require consideration for this purpose. I teach downtown in San Diego twice a week this semester, but those classes don’t start until 7pm and jury duty generally ends at 5pm. The venue is also more convenient to my teaching locale, so, in theory, I could put in a day at jury duty and easily make it to class. I have noted that this court system is also somewhat tolerant of jurors using laptops, iPads and iPhones during the day, obviously subject to the degree of engagement necessary for whatever proceedings one needs to attend. That point is that, as we all know, jury duty mostly involves sitting around and making yourself available to be called to service. When you are in the general juror pool, you sit and amuse yourself in one of many ways, such that for someone like me who prepares lectures and reads assigned papers or reads expert witness documentation, I can do that for much of the day I am called in. That can all change if the docket is active and if getting empaneled is activated and one has to pay attention to the case before the jury or perhaps just the voir dire process of being questioned prior to empanelment. So, for me, at this stage of career and general health, this is a relatively painless process that should be able to be accommodated.
I have served jury duty perhaps five times in my adult life, mostly in New York City (down on Centre Street) and once, as I recall, on Long Island (the Mineola courthouse). It would be a new experience to serve out here in San Diego, but I’m sure that while the venue is newer and probably brighter, it is probably pretty much the same uncomfortable stadium seats set in a jury pool room with a few clerks at an elevated podium seated at the front where they manipulate their lists and listen to complaints and excuses all day long. Who knows, maybe its all automated now and a better experience accordingly. That is already in evidence since I have to call a jury hot line every night starting before my presumed first day. That system is very simple and driven by a juror number that appears on the summons and instructions that were sent to me. The idea is that you call in, put in your number and the system instructs you about what you are to do and where you are supposed to go. This prevents needless traffic and sitting around in a jury room, but it also simply puts on pause the obligation one day at a time.
My first challenge was to remember to call the system on the first day back from my trip. I literally remembered to do so on Monday by sheer luck at just a few minutes past 6pm, which is when the notices are available through the system. First day was easy and I got a bye for the day and was told to call back the next evening. That would mean that I would have to call just before my class at 7pm, presumably from the University, since I generally arrive early to insure parking and preparation. I stuck my summons so that it was prominently jutting out of my bag and sure enough, I took note to call just after 6pm while I was having my cafe dinner in the lower level of the business school building. My Tuesday call was properly timed and I once again got a bye for Wednesday and was told to call back Wednesday evening. I teach on both Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, so I went through the same drill on Wednesday and just barely remembered to call while I was in the midst of managing my dinner selection in the same cafe (this place is getting lots of patronage from me this semester and I only wish they had a broader menu selection). I struggle between the Wagyu burger and these Middle Eastern Tajine dishes based on beef, lamb or chicken kabobs. My finicky tastes are always challenging with a limited menu. While I managed to make the call Wednesday and got another bye for Thursday, I also managed to lose my summons somewhere in the shuffle of tossing out my Tajine dinner detritus (note to self, skip the Tajine in the future).
These days it is only smart to take a picture of any important docs you might get or need to reference and I kicked myself for not having done so with this jury summons. I guess I didn’t think I would be using it to make calls for days on end. I thought I would either get called or get released fairly quickly. But not so. I had to call the court clerks office to get my juror number, a process I suspected would be difficult, but actually wasn’t. So, I now had a piece of paper with the numbers I needed and a photo of that paper in my phone, which would then always be with me, no matter what. It’s Friday morning now and I just realized that I forgot to call last night after all that rigamarole of losing and reacquiring the necessary numbers. Luckily, I remembered early enough today that I was able to call in and find out that I got another bye for today. I could have made it in time I suspect, but the last thing I wanted on a foggy Friday morning was to have to race into town just to sit in a jury room. The recording did not give me instructions that I am released after a week of calling in. Rather, it just said that I have to call again on Sunday night and put myself in the breach yet again.
No big deal, and certainly easier than shagging down to the courthouse every day, but still an annoyance of having to remember to call each night and go through that momentary excitement of possibly being asked to appear the next day for service. I am gutting this out for the duration because I have no choice and I do feel an obligation to do my duty to my country and its attempt at civil obedience. I imagine that age factors into this selection process in ways that aren’t disclosed to us, so this may be my last or penultimate call to service, so have at it.