My brush with jury duty

I was summoned to jury duty on Sept. 16, 2013, a day when my kids were scheduled to be out for teacher collaboration. I asked my mom to come be with my kids, hoping I would only be gone a couple of hours. This was the first time I'd ever been asked to report, so I went in knowing very little.

I left our house around 7:15 am. When I arrived at jury duty, I found out that an acquaintance of mine was also there. We sat and waited together--it was helpful to have something with whom to chat. Our group was too large to all fit into the courtroom at once. This was clue #1 that things were not going to be smooth. My friend was called up to the courtroom in the first group, and I stayedClue #2 was that they told us our group was much larger than normal. . Clue #3 came close to noon when the judge announced it would be a criminal case, lasting 4-5 weeks.

After that announcement, we were released for lunch and told to report to one courtroom if we wanted to discuss a hardship with the judge, and a different one if we had no hardship. Earlier in the day, the clerk alerted us that if we thought we had a good reason, we should discuss it with him, because once the jury was chosen, it would be too late.

I decided at that point that I had to talk to him. I went on my lunch break (nearly 2 hours), ate a sandwich, fabric shopped at my favorite Old Town store, and explored Old Town by myself. (I forgot the piece of advice to brings something to read. Those who had something to read were much more content waiting).

At 2:30pm we reported and found that there were a large number claiming hardship. It got a little ugly waiting . . . people upset about who would be called next, etc. At 4:00pm I counted close to 70 of us still waiting to speak to the judge. At 4:40 he came into the courtroom, said there would be 10 more called and the rest should report Tuesday, the 17th. My name was the last one on the list.

As the 50-60 others left, the tension in the room decreased dramatically.

I went in and said that my main concern was the length of the trial. "I have five children, one who is home full time with me."
"You are a stay at home mom?" the judge asked.
" Have you thought about bringing in help?" one of the lawyers asked.
"Yes, but I haven't  . . . , " I replied.
She pressed on, "Are there people who you could ask to help . . . they could drop your children off and you could bring them home?"
I said, "Yes, I have done that. But the length of the trial . . . "
The judge interrupted and said, "It would be possible for you to be here, but I am not going to go any further with this." Then, he thanked me for my time and dismissed me.  I liked him a lot, and even more when he told me I was done. It was 5:15 p.m.

I thanked them for consideration of my circumstances and hopped, skipped and jumped out of the room.

Jury duty is serious business. I know a lot more about what to expect and hope I'm not called for a criminal case anytime in the near future. I have no idea how my name got on the list of the last few to speak to the judge, but I am so grateful it was only one day.