My Day in Court

It all started the last week of January when I received a letter from the sheriff inviting me to appear at the Provincial Courthouse in Milton on February 16 at 9:15 A.M for Jury Duty. Groooannnn! Oh, and be prepared for up to three weeks, or even more.

Well, friends and acquaintances regaled me with stories of their experiences:

1. Had to report every morning for a week. On the days that I wasn't chosen for a jury, I got to go home at 10:30, but only after collecting the travel allowance.
   "People whose last names start with A-K, line up at the table on the left; L-Z at the table on the right."
   "Name please"
   "Smith"
   "You are in the wrong line."
   "This is the table on the right!"
   "Everyone switch lines."
   "Wouldn't it be easier if the two of you switched tables?"
   "NO! We always do it this way."
2. A friend of mine was on the jury for a murder trial. She was off work nearly every day for four months.
3. There were about 200 prospective jurors. We waited in the hall and were called into the court room as required. This went on until about 2:30. Then we would be sent home and have to come back the next day.

Then of course, there were the instructions about how to avoid being chosen for a jury. Basically, it came down to claiming to be a white supremacist, woman-hating, engineer. The worst part of this was "engineer". Lawyers don't like jurors who can think logically, although I have met engineers for which this does not apply.

I arrived at the courthouse a few minutes early, and immediately reported to the hallway. There were about 50 others there. At 9:18 sharp, a table was set up at one end of the hallway, and a woman told us to line up for our travel allowances. When it was my turn, she handed me $14.50, and said, "Go to Courtroom 3."

When most of us had arrived in Courtroom 3, a man passed out pamphlets explaining the process and telling us how we should be dressed. This struck me as rather late for that day, but then no one else complained, so I was willing to let it go.

Shortly after 10:00, the judge arrived. He explained that juries were being selected for three civil trials. Each jury would consist of 6 persons. When our name was called we should sit in the front row of the jury box in the seat corresponding to our number. Cards containing our names were placed in a drum and drawn one at a time.
"Suzy Squeeze Homemaker, please take seat number one" said the person drawing the names.
"Harvey Lyntz Manager, please take seat number two."

This continued until six people were chosen. It was about the fourth person before I realized that Suzy's last name was Squeeze, not Homemaker! Now the lawyers took turns rejecting the prospective jurors without stating a cause. As a juror was rejected, she was told to return to her seat. Another name was drawn, and that person was told to take the seat vacated by the previous person. It was then the next lawyer's turn. This continued until either each lawyer was happy, or his four rejections had been reached. Apparently, at this time, either lawyer could reject a juror for cause, but no lawyer did.

The judge explained that the trial would begin in 8 to 10 days. The selected jurors should go with the sheriff's assistant who would show them the courtroom that they would be in, and take down their phone numbers so that they could be called to inform them of exactly when they would be needed.

The cards for each person selected for, and then rejected for the first jury were placed back into the drum, and six people were selected for the next jury. Three of the people rejected the first time were selected in the six names drawn. The process continued until the lawyers for this trial were satisfied with the jurors selected.

Finally, the third jury was selected. The same person was selected initially, or as a replacement, and then rejected on all three juries. I'm sure that he was relieved, but started to develop a complex.

The judge thanked us for doing our duty as citizens, and told us not to be disappointed that we were not selected. He then invited us to come back to visit the court in future.

My name was not called. That was easy!