Becky Says...

February 1, 2001

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Jury Duty

I'm home from jury duty. They found enough people to be on the one jury for the rest of the week without needing to call me. They would have had to excuse me from the panel anyway, since I knew one of the two attorneys in the civil suit.

I think there's a rule written somewhere in the North Carolina General Statutes that says whenever I am called for jury service it has to be a civil suit about a traffic accident. That's what this one was, and my last time was, too. Not that I want to be on a jury for a criminal case, mind you.

One thing I had forgotten from the last time out was the film shown to prospective jurors. The Court Clerk told the roomful of us that if we had seen it before, or were familiar with jury service, we didn't have to sit through it, so several of us went outside. The main reason I left is that I didn't need to be told that jury service is a good thing---I already agree with that point. And for some reason it was just too weird this morning to listen to narration by the late Charles Kuralt.

The best line of the day in the courtroom came from one of the attorneys (the one I didn't know). He was questioning a prospective juror who had already said she didn't care for attorneys since she'd had a bad experience trying to settle a lawsuit some years earlier. The attorney looked at her, and said, "Well, if you think lawyers are the scum of the earth, do you think Mr. (Other Attorney) and I are equally scum, or do you like one of us better?"

She granted they were equal scum, and for whatever reason, they both allowed her to stay on the panel.

And for that reason alone, I'm sorry I didn't get to stick around.

Text � copyright 2000-2001 Becky