Thursday, November 4, 2010

Observations from Jury Duty Part III

In the future, I'm definitely going to pipe up with some crazy story during the jury selection process about how I'm traumatized about something or another and cannot offer an unbiased opinion about, well, anything really. Definitely coming up with that now. The key story elements will be as follows: my entire family, my house and car being broken into on the same day, and the persistent violated and now vengeful state in which I exist.

It was my observation that the attorneys picked the first twelve non-oversharing, non-crazy-storytelling peeps in the jury pool. Since panelists one and two had both had robbery/ID theft/anger issues, my neighbor number three and I were the first two picked. My theory was just to lay low and not say anything and get looked over. Obviously, wrong.

But the trial was short. We heard all the evidence and deliberated and came to a verdict in one day. It was pretty clear cut and our vote was unanimous. Defendant was not negligent in her driving and not responsible for plaintiff's medical bills. (I'm allowed to share this now.)

My other personal verdicts of the day include:

1. Plaintiff needs to cut off his ponytail and take a shower before appearing in court again. And probably shave, too, but that was the least of his image issues. I'm not expecting him to wear a suit, but everybody can lick their hand and smooth down their hair a little. The defense attorney could have given him some tips in the slick hair department.
2. Having been arrested for child abuse sorta undermines one's claims of starting a charity to help women and children. They kinda cancel each other out.
3. I'm fairly certain that this was the plaintiff's attorney's very first case ever. Plaintiff should have hired Jim Adler, the tough smart lawyer. Jim Adler can get you some undeserved money pronto.

My last object of note is the 1000 piece cat puzzle that was on the shelf in our jury room. Very curious.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Think deadlocked and bored....

Unknown said...

Wow, parts I-III have made me a bit thankful I had a 2 month old baby the last time I got my summons! Did you clear any payment for your services? In Houston if you have to go downtown courts the parking ends up being more than you get paid as a juror!

Beth said...

All in all, it really wasn't that bad, and they did cut us a check when we left. FYI, in Fort Worth they pay $6 for your first day, and $40 for every day after that. If I had parked close to the justice center, my parking bill would have come close to my check, but I parked in free parking and took the bus in.