Jury Duty
So I am actually posting something.
For the first time in my life, I finally get a call to jury duty, and don't have a major exemption (being in the military) or get it dismissed the night before (CT calls huge numbers, and then dismisses many without serving.) Unlike many people out there, I want to serve on a jury, maybe it is because I have a chance to pass judgement on people, or maybe because it is a way of participating in our democracy that is real, and tangible, and I suspect you can see you are having an effect. Or maybe it is that I have always been fascinated by law, and our legal system, but far too ethical to ever be an attorney.
So here I am, reporting to jury duty, actually excited by the chance to serve. There is a catch of course. My employer is a contractor/vendor supplying services to a large software company on the east side. I will let you guess which one. Because they can only bill hours that I am providing service to the client company, they won't pay me for hours not billable. In other words, while they are happy to let me have the time off to serve on a jury, I don't get payed. I figured I could afford to miss one, maybe two weeks worth of pay. I really want to do this service.
So sitting in the jury room, I am called for the first panel of the day. We finally get up to the court room, and I get a bad feeling. There are 55 members of this panel, and a large host of lawyers. To me this starts to smell of a civil trial. Turns out to be a medical malpractice case. Then the other shoe drops, the judge announces that he has targeted November 1st as the day he thinks he can hand the case over to the jury. I am screwed. I want to serve, but I can't afford to serve that long. This would be in excess of three weeks, and I just can't see having to let everything else lapse to pay the rent. The judge then gives us a pep talk about duty, and justice, and all sorts of good stuff, and asks us if there is anyone who doesn't think he can give their full attention for the length of this trial. Reluctantly I put up my hand. Of course he doesn't dismiss anyone at this point, which may be doing us a favor. So I got to sit through 75% of a day and a half voir dire. And then was dismissed on a hardship. I went back to the jury room a few minutes before lunch, and then knitted for about 3 hours (interrupted by a brief jaunt to my favorite Pioneer Square lunch spot, Soup Daddy). Finally in early afternoon, the call comes down no more panels needed. So we are free to go. So I don't get to serve.
So now that I am free of all ethical limitations, I research the case a bit, and have backed up some of my guesses. This is a bullshit case that is going to be heartbreaking for the jury. The first question from the Plaintiff's council for the panel was "Does anyone know what a frivoulous lawsuit is?". As soon as you start trying to defuse that argument, in voir dire, you might be in trouble. She also had a question to a juror objected to, and had the objection sustained. I googled the defendant, and found no complaints or disciplinary actions, only a few papers co-authored. I think this is an angry, and grieving family, trying to take out their grief in court. I strongly suspect there is not a whole lot of merit to the case. Frankly, malpractice insurance companies prefer to settle, if they have any doubt that they might lose. They were throwing some serious effort into this case. The doctor's attorney, the attorney for the practice where the doctor works, and a third gentleman who would be there while they picked a jury. Yes, they had a "Jury Doctor". The defense had brought in a specialist in picking juries. They were very serious. Granted, I don't know the merits of the case, but were I reporting for the courthouse beat of the local paper, I wouldn't bother with this one. Three weeks of tragic testimoney from family, and then lots of expert witnesses on both sides, and I strongly suspect it will all come to naught.
Ah well, probably a good idea I was not able to serve on this jury, but I might try and follow the trial. I must see if the county keeps the dockett on the web, and if they post the verdicts, or settlements.
For the first time in my life, I finally get a call to jury duty, and don't have a major exemption (being in the military) or get it dismissed the night before (CT calls huge numbers, and then dismisses many without serving.) Unlike many people out there, I want to serve on a jury, maybe it is because I have a chance to pass judgement on people, or maybe because it is a way of participating in our democracy that is real, and tangible, and I suspect you can see you are having an effect. Or maybe it is that I have always been fascinated by law, and our legal system, but far too ethical to ever be an attorney.
So here I am, reporting to jury duty, actually excited by the chance to serve. There is a catch of course. My employer is a contractor/vendor supplying services to a large software company on the east side. I will let you guess which one. Because they can only bill hours that I am providing service to the client company, they won't pay me for hours not billable. In other words, while they are happy to let me have the time off to serve on a jury, I don't get payed. I figured I could afford to miss one, maybe two weeks worth of pay. I really want to do this service.
So sitting in the jury room, I am called for the first panel of the day. We finally get up to the court room, and I get a bad feeling. There are 55 members of this panel, and a large host of lawyers. To me this starts to smell of a civil trial. Turns out to be a medical malpractice case. Then the other shoe drops, the judge announces that he has targeted November 1st as the day he thinks he can hand the case over to the jury. I am screwed. I want to serve, but I can't afford to serve that long. This would be in excess of three weeks, and I just can't see having to let everything else lapse to pay the rent. The judge then gives us a pep talk about duty, and justice, and all sorts of good stuff, and asks us if there is anyone who doesn't think he can give their full attention for the length of this trial. Reluctantly I put up my hand. Of course he doesn't dismiss anyone at this point, which may be doing us a favor. So I got to sit through 75% of a day and a half voir dire. And then was dismissed on a hardship. I went back to the jury room a few minutes before lunch, and then knitted for about 3 hours (interrupted by a brief jaunt to my favorite Pioneer Square lunch spot, Soup Daddy). Finally in early afternoon, the call comes down no more panels needed. So we are free to go. So I don't get to serve.
So now that I am free of all ethical limitations, I research the case a bit, and have backed up some of my guesses. This is a bullshit case that is going to be heartbreaking for the jury. The first question from the Plaintiff's council for the panel was "Does anyone know what a frivoulous lawsuit is?". As soon as you start trying to defuse that argument, in voir dire, you might be in trouble. She also had a question to a juror objected to, and had the objection sustained. I googled the defendant, and found no complaints or disciplinary actions, only a few papers co-authored. I think this is an angry, and grieving family, trying to take out their grief in court. I strongly suspect there is not a whole lot of merit to the case. Frankly, malpractice insurance companies prefer to settle, if they have any doubt that they might lose. They were throwing some serious effort into this case. The doctor's attorney, the attorney for the practice where the doctor works, and a third gentleman who would be there while they picked a jury. Yes, they had a "Jury Doctor". The defense had brought in a specialist in picking juries. They were very serious. Granted, I don't know the merits of the case, but were I reporting for the courthouse beat of the local paper, I wouldn't bother with this one. Three weeks of tragic testimoney from family, and then lots of expert witnesses on both sides, and I strongly suspect it will all come to naught.
Ah well, probably a good idea I was not able to serve on this jury, but I might try and follow the trial. I must see if the county keeps the dockett on the web, and if they post the verdicts, or settlements.