18 Things You Might Not Know About Jury Duty

A letter arrives in the post informing you that you’ve been randomly selected to undertake two weeks of jury service. Your mind flashes through all the courtroom dramas you’ve ever seen in movies and television shows.

Cut-throat lawyers, heart-wrenching testimonies, and defendants breaking down and confessing to their crimes after intense cross-examination.

Then you realize your boss is going to be extremely mad about you being away from the office for so long and the commute to the courthouse is a bitch.

Here are some things that I learned during jury duty…

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You’ll never get called up for jury duty if you don’t vote
There’s no use whining that “I never get called for jury duty” if you’ve never registered to vote. Those summoned for jury service all come from the most recent municipal enumeration (voters list), so you have to be in it to win it (or lose it, depending on your outlook).

Just because you’re summoned does not mean you will necessarily serve on a “jury panel”
There’s a good possibility you may just spend a week waiting around without ever getting selected for a trial. Or worse, called into several courtrooms and overlooked when they pick the 12 jury members. Take a book. Bad Wi-Fi is a given.

You can (probably) get out of it if you really need to
You definitely can’t opt out of jury duty simply because you don’t feel like it. But if you have physical or emotional difficulties at the time of your summons, you may be able to sidestep your obligation. You’re not going to be any good to anyone if your health is poor, travel is difficult for you or a lengthy trial could render you financially unstable.

You will be made to watch a very boring video
The sense of awe and nervous excitement that surrounds the bunch of adults heading into courtroom number one quickly subsides to tedium and sleepiness when an old video is played explaining to you what you can expect from jury duty. This is the first, but definitely not your last, indication that life in the courthouse is decidedly less exciting than it is on Law and Order.

Courtrooms are modern
Chances are you’ll find yourself in a fairly modern courtroom, with fold down seats, a carpet that looks highly flammable, and zero wood or chequered marble floors.

It’s not as boring as you’ve heard
People talk a lot about how boring jury duty can be and the internet is awash with how-to guides for getting out of your civic obligation. But if you have even a marginal interest in law, I would suggest you stop fighting it. For a short period of time, you’re actually a part of the legal system, and you have some say in the justice in this world. Don’t waste it complaining that you’d rather be at work.

That being said, sometimes it’s hard to keep your eyes open
You will be required to listen to lengthy pieces of evidence, like initial statements made to the police, read out in court that go on for several million pages. No matter how intriguing the case is, it can be boring as hell.

You’re at very close proximity with the accused family members
Courtrooms are generally pretty small so chances are you’ll be just a stone’s throw away from the accused – and the plaintiff’s family. Between sobbing and angrily glaring, I tried desperately hard not to catch anyone’s eye throughout.

Disappointingly, people seldom yell “Objection!”
Sure, it happens, but in a much less theatrical manner and rarely shouted like in the movies and the constant tennis match back-and-forth of “Objection,” “Overruled!” between lawyer and judge is a bit of a myth. In real life, the lawyers are pretty well behaved and if they want to challenge something they’ll more than likely have a quiet word with the man in the wig before just blurting it out.

Ditto “this whole court room’s out of order!”
And judge’s banging the gavel and yelling “order, order.” It’s literally nothing like My Cousin Vinny. Hijinks are kept to a minimum.

There are plenty of times when people are asked to repeat things and speak up
Aside from the drama being a little more muted than it is on the screen, the logistics can make the process a slow and sometimes arduous one. Since the average civilian probably isn’t used to talking into a microphone or providing evidence, they often speak too quietly or too quickly and are asked to repeat.

Which is when you can pass a little note along
If you’re a bit lost, you can’t hear the witness, or the juror to your right has fallen asleep and is snoring (true story), you can get the attention of your court constable, or registrar, by handing them a piece of paper. Do not just yell for witnesses to speak up mid-session (tempting though it may be).

You will form ‘gangs’ once the trial gets underway
Petty as it sounds, when sh*t starts to go down during the trial, you’ll find yourselves gravitating towards those whose feelings align with your own – be they guilty or not-guilty – which may lead to some bad blood. It’s a bit like West Side Story, but with less finger clicking and much more sitting quietly for hours at a time.

You’re probably going to blab to at least one person
It’s all-consuming, and depending on your case, potentially pretty exciting. So when you get home and your friend/girlfriend/mom asks, “So… what’s it all about?” you’re going to want to blab. You’re definitely not supposed to and you will be reminded of this frequently, but surely if you don’t mention names it won’t hurt…?

Twelve very angry men (and women)
They’re strangers, so it may seem a little absurd that you could be lose your temper with one of them or get all up in their grill after one short week. But you’ll quickly become invested and impassioned and understandably not everyone will agree. So prepare to get a little testy.

Someone will be nominated as ‘Foreman’
That’s the person who stands up and delivers the verdict. Avoid it like the plague, especially if you live in the same locality as the guilty party and their angry family. Usually a self-important juror will step up to the plate, casually mentioning how well they fit the bill, say, “Oh no I couldn’t possibly” when nominated, and then later “reluctantly” agree to.

Hung juries are more common than you’d think
In the two times I was a juror, the panel and I were unable to come to a consensus decision. Even getting it to a majority verdict of 10 to two was impossible, and after much debate we reached an impasse. Either I have a terrible effect on groups of people deliberating, or this is a fairly common occurrence.

It’s beyond frustrating that you’ll never know for sure
By now, you’ll have realized that I watch a lot of crime-based television dramas. And yet another huge difference between screen and reality is that when you walk away from the case you’ll have an overbearing sense of, did we make the right decision? Did he really do it? Particularly in cases with hung juries, there’s a terrible sense of anti-climax. It’s the ultimate cliff-hanger, and there’s no season two on the horizon.

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