Jury Duty

Ok, so it's been a long time since I've posted. We were having some technical difficulties when we switched over to the new blogger through Google, but I think we're back in business. So, I'll be doing a couple catch up posts in the near future.

Anyway, today I had jury duty for the first time. I was called twice in Seattle, but the first time was the week of my college graduation, so they let me off. And the second time I had just moved here to LA, so I was exempt.

EVERYONE gets called for jury duty in Los Angeles, so it was only a matter of time. Here's a schedule of today's events:

0830: Arrive at the courthouse to see a line of people out the door and down one length of the building, curving around the corner, and down another length of the building. Since I was a juror, I got to go to the front of the line!
0930: Hear the schpeal from one of the judges about why it is really a privilage to do jury service.
1015-1030: Listen to another orientation about how the day works and when we can expect breaks and lunch.
1055: My name is called for the first group to be sent out. We are sent to courtroom 73 where a DUI case will be tried. There were already 11 people selected for the jury the day before, so they needed to select one more person to sit on the jury and two more alternates. They interviewed about six people from our group to fill these positions, and I was never interviewed. So, I got to sit and watch the process as first the judge asked questions, then the prosecuting attorney, and then the defendant's lawyer. It was pretty interesting!
1200-1330: lunch break-I want an hour and a half lunch break every day! I was able to meet up with Luke for lunch which is always a treat!
1330-1415: Back to the courtroom for more interviews. Once the jury had been selected, I was sent back to the Jury Assembly Room to wait for another assignment.
1415-1615: Sit around with all the other bored, potential jurors, reading my book and watching tv.
1615: About 30 more people are sent out to courtroom 70, but thankfully my name is not called.
1630: Since I am one of the lucky 15 or so people left in the room, I get to go home. Yeah for me!

My jury service has been fulfilled for the year.