Considering that I've only been a US citizen for 9 years, I've racked up my fair share of jury experience. As a friend of mine suggested, I must still be in the "jury duty initiation phase" for new citizens. I got my US citizenship in the fall of 2001 and my first jury duty experience was in the spring of 2004. I showed up that day eager to learn about the American court system. Man, I got A LOT more than I bargained for. It turned out that the day I was called they were replenishing the grand jury and I ended up serving 6 months of jury duty. There are 2 grand jury's in the city (12 jurors each) and every 3 months 6 of the jurors roll off each jury and are replaced with 6 new ones. The grand jurys meet each Monday to review cases and determine whether there is sufficient evidence to send a case to trial. Each grand jury met every alternate Monday morning and spent about 4-5 hours reviewing cases. Imagine my employer's surprise when I told them my jury duty commitment was going to last for 6 months!
So, when I got another jury duty notice in the mail a few weeks ago I braced myself. There's NO way this could happen to me again. Hopefully this time I'd serve my day and then be safe for another several years. As a stay-at-home home I was looking forward to serving. After all, the excuse to dress up in "business casual" clothes and travel into the city with the rest of the working world sounded fun. But, as the week progressed things got a little more complicated....Scott ended up flying up to Halifax, so I needed someone to watch Alex for the day. Will had his special "Muffins with Me" Mother's Day celebration that morning that I REALLY didn't want to miss. Regardless, I booked a sitter for the day for Alex and explained to Will that as much as I hated to miss the festivities I needed to do my jury duty.
I was supposed to serve on Friday. I called the jury duty hotline Thursday night to check-in. I was shocked, but relieved to hear the recording tell me I'd been "excused" from jury duty. Thank goodness!!! I suppose they're really is such a thing as jury duty karma....after putting in my 6 months of service, I finally landed a break. You can bet I savored every minute of "Muffins with Me" at school with Will this morning (well, besides the 2 minutes I spent manning Alex while he SCREAMED in the hallway during his time out for throwing muffins in the classroom).
23 hours ago
1 comments:
That must have been really interesting serving on a Grand Jury. Funny enough, Rick's co-worker is currently on one as well. I also just received a jury summons and became nervous. How can I serve on a jury w/ a newborn and w/ pumping six times a day?! The notice said that postponements are "rarely granted" but I wrote a letter and explained my situation. Low and behold, they let me postpone it for six months! I was impressed. I enjoyed reading your post. :-)
Post a Comment