Jury Duty Part 1

On Monday I got the opportunity to serve and complete my jury duty for the year. 

When I got my notice in the mail originally, I knew it was in my best interest to postpone because it was so close to the wedding that I just didn't want to deal with the hassle. It was a "call in" slot/appointment thing and quite frankly when you have already been at work for a few hours before the Court opens... the call in option doesn't really fit into your schedule very well. 

I don't know about any of you, but the thought of Jury Duty doesn't send shivers up my spine and make me freak out, in fact quite the opposite. It fascinates the history buff inside me. 

So, after a phone call to the court house (because the forms don't have a box to check on them if you need to show up in person... And they just plain don't make it easy for you to fill out) I marked my form appropriately and in a week or so I received a postcard in the mail saying the date I requested to show up was fine and dandy with them.

I will say something though, I'm glad my work has paid jury duty service because it would be a hardship for my husband and I if I was only getting $15 a day plus mileage one way... They really should consider changing this amount. I know the court doesn't have a lot of money, but maybe they should make it so employers need to provide Jury Duty pay for at least 3 days for regular employees or something. 


Right now now we live on my income for the most part (despite going into labor ready all week last week SCB wasn't able to get any work.) and if I didn't have paid jury duty it would but us in a very difficult spot. So i'm very fortunate to not have to worry financially about being called for service. 

But to amuse you further, here are some things I learned while waiting for my name to be called for a trail selection:

• Some people really don't think when they make their phone calls. The guy sitting next to me just read off all the digits off his credit card... including his expiration date AND the little code on the back. Sure he needed his secretary to play for a ticket for a travel arrangement, but I could have very easily gotten all of his information and gone on a nice shopping spree if I wasn't such a law abiding citizen... especially when they had to spell his name 4 times over the intercom because he wasn't paying attention when they did the first round of names for service.... yup, it would have been all to easy.  
• Apparently judges aren't exempt from jury duty. Oh and according to one of the judges here who did our "welcome speech," we are asked to be jurors because the only thing necessary for a judge to be a judge is 10t years as a lawyer... And lawyers don't have much common sense.-- He was funny... and it was much more interesting listening to him then the "informational" movies.  
• Jury duty is a great place to to finish writing all your wedding thank you cards... It looks like ill use every last one I ordered :) We ended up getting incredibly blessed after the wedding from the family I was staying with... I'm still floored... they are too generous...  
• Labor ready is still our employment savior for the time being. SCB will get to do something new since he hasn't been called back as a dishwasher yet... He gets to unload a truck today for 4 hours. The start of the xbox fund begins! (or possibly a "new glasses" fund... or a doctor visit fund... Our goal is to get the xbox done by December to bring it with us for Christmas in Utah).
• I figured out how to do some Mobil banking and realized I never transferred some $200 something dollars out of our wedding fund... Found money is awesome and I feel so much better now because I couldn't figure out how we had managed to spend so much because the budget numbers just were not adding up at all... Yeah for finding money... Even digitally :)

I made it through round one of jury selection without being called.... 


Round two... 


Round three.... 


And right before lunch they did round four and I just knew I was going to get called... It is a Monday after all and the last time I was here they only called three groups the whole day. So when I they read my name I gathered up my belongings and walked up and took my paper. I would have to report to a court room after lunch to see if I'm selected. 


Truthfully its the first time this has happened to me. My names never been called before... and i'm a bit excited to see how the rest of the day goes...


Had I known that they have a fridge for people to put their lunch in I would have taken that route because the cafeteria is VERY expensive and its a bit of a walk to get to the parking structure to move your car after the end of the day. Since I knew there was a chance i'd be there until 5pm, I went ahead and bit the bullet and ate there, but if you do get called for service, bring snack foods and be better prepared then I was... and Bottle Water. You are allowed to bring that in. (EVEN inside the court room.)