I have been on jury duty for the Superior Court of California,
County of Santa Clara, all week. I have not yet been called in,
I am just waiting and available. Sunday and Monday, the
“Current Juror Status” web site said my group should check back
again after 5 p.m. Yesterday, it said check back between noon
and 1 p.m. today. So I am working from home (closer to the court
house than my office) with my grumpy 13-year-old son who is home
with a cold, waiting. At noon, the web site changed, now I have
to check back after 5 p.m. today to find out about tomorrow.
Every county has a slightly different system for managing
potential jurors. Since I was 18, I have lived in San
Francisco county, Contra Costa county, San Mateo County,
and Santa Clara county (all in the Bay Area) with two years
out to live in Santa Barbara. I was never called for jury
duty at all until about 10 years ago. During those 10 years,
I have spent several days sitting in waiting rooms at the court
house and several weeks like this one, available to be called.
I have never actually served on a jury. The jury waiting rooms in
Santa Clara county are much nicer than in San Mateo county.
Last year, I almost served. My group was moved from the
big waiting room to a smaller one. After an hour, the judge
came out to talk with us. He said that he was sorry we would not
be able to serve today after all. The defendant was accused of a
new gang-related crime when they were almost ready for the trial, so
they had to postpone. He said it would have been an interesting
case that took several weeks and he knew we were sorry we would
miss it. We were dismissed. There were some quiet cheers, then we
left very quickly in case he changed his mind.
Being able to serve on a jury is an obligation of U.S. citizenship,
like paying taxes, and serving in the military if drafted. You
can’t volunteer for jury duty, it is randomly assigned. Since
you don’t know when it will happen or how long it will take, it
is not a popular obligation even though it is clearly necessary.
I am getting some work done. My son’s teacher just sent me
email with his homework assigments for tomorrow. I finally got
the telex number for our Russian visas (hooray!) and passed them
to Visa Networks. I am working on matching some SEEDs with mentors.
I have one new match already (both mentor and mentee are in France)
and am calling the potential mentors from whom I have not yet heard.
KatysBlog 