Summoned

I was recently summoned to jury duty in Hennepin County. If you talked to me throughout the week, you would have heard me complain, whine and roll my eyes.

I admit, I was planning on never being needed for jury duty so I opted for call-in status. Sunday night I had my first sigh of relief. By Monday afternoon they already needed me. I had trouble getting downtown, finding parking and following the signs to the assembly room and office. There was a lengthy "orientation" followed immediately by two requests for juries. My name was called for the second request.

It took a full day for jury selection. The process was long and drawn out. A lot of time was wasted hanging out in the hallway. After all the questioning, the lawyers decided my opinion was necessary. Over the next two days we listened to instructions, opening statements, witnesses and finally closing arguments. It felt like a LONG time. In actuality, we were only in the courtroom for about 5 hours.

We spent a few hours on our last day deliberating. It was an interesting discussion where I'm sure everyone learned something. After the verdict was announced, the judge asked to meet with us to get feedback. This small gesture added so much to the process that I was swayed to think it was overall a great experience! Plus, you can't beat the $10/day, not including mileage even though I took the bus.