Jury duty

I have to show up at 8 a.m. tomorrow for jury duty. The last two times I was called, I managed to get out of it before the actual court date. No such luck this time. What should I expect?

 

Bring a book.

 

Sitting around for hours doing nothing

 

A lot of nothing.

On the bright side, if there was a book or series of books you wanted to dig into ...

 

What he said.

I kind of like jury duty. Get paid to sit on my ass and read a book? Sure.

(I did end up on a jury once, and that kind of sucked.)

 

You want to get out of jury duty and not have the judge think you're a douche? Use this tip:

When you're called into the courtroom, at some point the judge is going to bring you up as a prospective juror and will ask if you have ever served. Tell him/her you have and explain why you didn't like it.

That's my plan the next time I get called. I served back in '05 and it was terrible. Case went two weeks where everyone in the room (including the guy's lawyer) knew he was guilty. There was an extreme amount of evidence, tons of witnesses and the guy had a checkered past. On the final day, dude didn't even show up for the verdict. Deliberation took all of 30 minutes.

I love my country, but that was atrocious. I'm never voluntarily doing that crap again.

 

take a reporter's notebook and tell the judge you're going to write a column on the experience and you want to be sure to spell his or her name right.

 

After years of covering courts, I would give my left nut for serving on a jury. Never happened.

My wife was called once but as soon as she told the attorney (who I knew) that she was my girlfriend, he winked at her and told her she was excused.

 

I wish I would have brought a book, but I don't understand trying to get out of it. Every citizen should do it. I got called, but then my case was settled the night before the trial was supposed to start.

 

That happened to me, thankfully, but I wasn't on the jury ... I had been subpoenaed over my notes.

 

Look on Jonesy's China thread, RE: No. 7...

 

Is that considered sporting goods in China?