Blind Date

I don't care how experienced a juror you are, everytime you answer a new summon, it's like going on a blind date. The case is obviously different, so is the venue, fellow jurors and most importantly, the judge. They all make everything so unpredictable.

Why, just 2 days ago when I went to report for jury duty, I felt comfortable as I have been a juror before. I was armed with water, snack, sun glasses and sun shade (for the 20 minutes walk from Disney Concert Hall to the criminal court), a computer (to ease the pain of waiting around for nothing), and a sweater (in case it gets chillingly cold in the court room).

On my first day, I was one of 85 people selected for the case. Immediately we were marched to another floor. After much waiting, the clerk informed us that it was going to be a short case, about 3 weeks (yes, everything is relative)! That day, they were going to do just hardship. She went on to explain some hardship cases, such as no/low reimbursement from employer, arranged travel plan, extreme medical condition etc...

I was sitting around re-arranging my thoughts to see how I could fit into one of those categories when the courtroom door opened. We were ushered into the room, then presently the judge came in. There was none of this rise and salute to the judge stuffs you see on TV.

My blind date, his judgeship, looked really serious. He asked all of us to rise and pledge an oath to tell the truth, nothing but the truth etc. Then, in his most solemn voice, he explained that he had been a judge for over 26 years and had seen all kinds of jurors with all kinds of lies. We were reminded that we were all under oath and if he found out that we were lying to get out of jury duty, we would faced penalty of perjury. My knees started to shake and all the excuses that I thought of went out of the window.

So when his judgeship asked all jurors who could serve to leave the room, I quietly left too. I found out later that the judge interviewed all the other jurors who pleaded hardship one by one!

I know my game face is not perfected enough to get by the judge!