Monday, June 14, 2010

my purpose in life

...is to serve on a jury.
...apparently.

let's file this one under miscellaneous monday, shall we? because i don't have anything in particular to say about writing or publishing today, and there are so many other interesting things to blab about.

#1 being... JURY DUTY.

fact: i am 31 years old.
fact: as of today, i have been summoned to jury duty 7 TIMES! that's right. SEVEN. (more than my father and mother combined)
fact: i have yet to actually serve on one of those juries or so much as get called before a judge and attorneys to answer questions about my eligibility.
conclusion: i am destined to serve on a jury, and the courtly cosmos will continue to spam my mailbox with summons notices until i do.

how, you ask, is it even possible to get called for jury duty an average of every other year? isn't there some stipulation that you won't be called again for three years?
why, what a brilliant question, i say! let me break it down for you:

jury summons #1 - age 18 - municipal court in my hometown in Illinois - went and sat all day until they came out and told us attorneys had settled out of court.
jury summons #2 - age 22 - Tucson court - i called the night before and was dismissed without going in.
jury summons #3 - age 25 - same Tucson court (my 3-year reprieve was up) - by this time i was living in indianapolis, so i had an acceptable reason to decline jury duty.
jury summons #4 - age 26 - Indianapolis court - by this time i was living in phoenix, so i got to decline again.
jury summons #5 - age 28 - Phoenix municipal court - okay, this time they got me. went and sat all day and never got pulled from the holding pen to even see the inside of a courtroom.
jury summons #6 - age 30 - Arizona federal court - (what?? but it's only been 2 years! oh, but it's a different court system, see.) - deferred service to a more convenient week (yeah, a WEEK for federal duty). - called the night before my new service date and was released for the entire week. no need to show up at court.

that was january. fast forward a mere 5 months to today:

jury summons #7 - age 31 - Phoenix superior court
- the last one and the best one. this is where the big cases go, all the ones you see on TV. this is where the judges make you swear not to breathe a word of the case to anyone outside of court. this is where they tell you not to watch the news so you won't be swayed.
now, let me tell you something.
i am a TV news producer. that means it will be impossible for me to follow the jury rules and likely result in my dismissal. which i predict means.... another summons is just around the corner. because clearly, the universe wants me to do this - someday, somewhere, somehow.
however, 7 is my lucky number and the funny bit about all of this is that i would LOVE to serve on a jury - and even after all my summons, i've never had the chance. maybe it's finally my turn.

in other miscellaneous monday news, can i just shake my fist at larry page and sergey brin for a second? i spent hours and hours over the past week tinkering with html code and scouring the internet for blog banners... and TODAY i log in to see there's a new blogger feature for custom designing your page.

seriously.

and, oh fine, for those of you who insist on reading something about writing and/or publishing - i have heard nothing from Agent Almost. it's been 2 weeks since i sent the revisions. every day i wake up and tell myself he is reading it and making notes and will get back to me in due time. then i obsessively check my email 600 times throughout the day and fall asleep reminding myself once again to be patient.

i hope you are all doing something much more productive with your own time.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is a perfect example of why the system is so confusing even to those who are aware of the way the judicial system works.

Jade would smack me in the forehead for mentioning this, but I'm 30 years old and I've never been summoned for jury duty even once. I do have a criminal record, but no felonies. Several of my friends who do have felonies have been summoned to jury duty. < ? >

As for the last part, I would think that as a television producer you would instantly be disqualified from serving on any jury duty. (Don't the Republicans always say the media is biased?)

Just seems kind of weird to me.

Meehan

firstorderhistorians.wordpress.com

Nomes said...

Haha.

I'm 30 and I've been summoned 4 times and never done ti yet either. it is weird though, how some people get called a lot and I have mates who have never been summoned...

LOL (in the nicest possible way :) @ discovering the new blogger designs! I have no idea about html either...

erinjade said...

Meehan, i must have gotten your share by mistake! haha. :)
and yeah, you would think i'd be disqualified as a journalist, but i've had coworkers give that excuse and get picked, so who knows? if i got picked for a big case - something we would cover - i can't imagine how i'd do my job on my days off from jury duty.

Nomes, i think the courtly cosmos is after you too! i was at 5 summons when i turned 30. then the two in the past six months brought me to 7. your next summons might be in the mail!

Sage said...

Well, at least you didn't end up on a jury all those times. I happened to get jury duty right before starting my first post-college job, and had to spend my last week off at a trial.

erinjade said...

UPDATE! for those who are interested in the process...

when i went online to answer my summons this morning, there was a link where i could view my history of service in Phoenix.

apparently, municipal and superior court draw from the same pools. there is this long online log of when i moved here and was added to the pools, when i was summoned at age 28, that i showed up and was paid for gas basically, when i was taken out of the pool, when i was put in again 2 years later, and when i was summoned again.
all very interesting stuff!

erinjade said...

sage, i would say i was jealous, but to have to serve on your last week of vacation is criminal. i'm sorry. :(

but did you find the experience interesting??

bclement412 said...

Hahha! I think it would be fun to serve on a jury at least once.

But I KNOW right? I gave my blog an entire makeover (i am so NOT tech savvy, btw.. i have no idea about html codes or css or anythingg) and I yesterday I see blogger has a new feature.

Real mature blogger, rull mature.

http://bclement412.blogspot.com/