Jury Duty

"Mark Edwards" wrote in message
...
Next to military service, nothing typifies "Hurry up and Wait" like
jury duty.


Snip

It gets better, you know - not. I've been called for jury duty many times.
A few years ago, I actually got on a case. Actually, they weren't doing the
security checks then, but everything else was very much as you described it.
Since I'm retired, I didn't have a good reason not to be picked. Actually,
I rather enjoy jury duty, except for the waiting. The case lasted three
weeks.

A typical day: We were told to be there at 9 AM. Some time between 10:00
and 10:30, we were called into the courtroom. Some time between 11:30 and
12:00, we were dismissed for lunch recess and told to be back at 2:00.
Sometimes we were let back into the courtroom by 2:30. A couple of times we
sat in the hall until 3:30 or so, waiting for an important (i.e., highly
paid) witness to show up. We were usually dismissed for the day between
4:30 and 5:00.

The previous time I had jury duty, the pay was $3 a day plus mileage. This
time it had gone up to $8, except that you no longer get paid for the first
day. Our county has a "one day or one trial" policy for jury duty, so if
you sat all day and didn't get on a jury, you didn't get paid, except for
your mileage.

Joy