summoned

A few weeks ago I was summoned for jury duty in the NYC Supreme Court and I was actually looking forward to the opportunity. I wasn't quite sure what to expect having never been called before, so I went prepared with a good book. The first day I sat in a room with 160 other strangers and listened as they called several other names but not mine, the second day (it is required that you serve a minimum of 2 days in NYC) was almost the same and I thought I would make it out of there without being called but they finally read my name on the last call of the day so I was asked to return for a third day for jury selection.

Jury selection was very frustrating and I felt like I was a witness on the stand being interrogated with all of their questions. By the end of the third day they had excused the first 5 people in our group and asked the rest of the 19 to come back for more selections. The fourth day I was finally selected, but very annoyed how people had behaved just to get out of serving. I felt like I could be fair and impartial and didn't think it was necessary to make up excuses to get out of it. However, if I had known then just how long and inefficient this process was going to be, I probably would have tried harder to get out of it. The next two days were spent sitting around and reading more (I read 3 books) while they selected the rest of the 6 jurors and 2 alternates.

I understand that everyone deserves the right to a fair trial and I have no problem with this, but there should be a rule as to how long the attorneys can take selecting 8 jurors for a civil, personal injury trial. After they finished their selections we calculated that they went through 45 people to select 8 of us. At this point I was extremely annoyed and embarrassed that I had already taken a week off of work and the trial still hadn't started.

Although I was annoyed and not looking forward to hearing more from the attorneys I was anxious to see just how the trial process worked. All I know is what I have seen in the movies, and let me just say, it's not nearly as glamorous as Law & Order. I won't go through the whole process but I will say that the judge was awesome and treated the jury like we were royalty but she always seemed so annoyed with the attorneys. My favorite was when the plaintiff's attorney was questioning a witness and had been doing so for quite some time when she interrupted and said he had two more questions and then he would be done.

The part that annoyed me the most was listening to the defenses two medical examiners and wondering just how credible their testimonies were. Yes, I am sure they were telling the truth but I felt like they weren't shown all of the plaintiff's medical records therefore they couldn't give an accurate diagnosis. I mean, how can you say that someone has not suffered neck injuries if you haven't even seen their MRI's?

In the end (after two weeks off of work)I felt like our decision was obvious, we all came to an agreement quite quickly. We found that the defendant was, in fact, negligent and rewarded the plaintiff money for his pain and suffering. I didn't like how we (the jurors) were sent back into our chambers with little direction on how we should reward the plaintiff as far as a monetary value. I mean how much do you give someone for the pain and suffering they have endured and will continue to endure for the rest of their lives? We finally agreed on an amount and after we were done I was very glad that it wasn't on a criminal case, determining the fate of someones future. I am glad it is over and happy to say I have done my civic duty!

Other than jury duty we haven't done much so far this summer (if it would ever stop raining). Jason is busy studying for the bar and I will be so happy when he is done. I thought finals were bad but this is like one big final that never ends:(