Jury Duty Summons... turned into 4 days on a Jury Trial!!

So - I haven't been able to talk about it until now.....

I mentioned on Sunday that I was summoned for jury duty for the first time ever in my adult life. 42 years of age and I had never been summoned for this civic duty before now. I was asked to show up at the Galveston County Courthouse at 11:15 am. At that time, all the potential jurors are checked in and then we get to view a video about how important being a juror is to our judicial system. Interesting... ok, so I feel empowered!! :-)

From that point, we are assigned to a specific court. We then go to lunch and come back directly to that court. At that time, we are shuffled around and put in order 1 - 37 in our case. The first time they did this, I ended up as #8 on the panel and that really wasn't good. Would have a high likelihood to be on the jury. Darn it!! Then, for some reason (learned what it was later), they shuffled the deck again and I ended up #21 on the panel. Seemed to be a better place to be because they would have had to strike at least 9 people in front of me to end up on the jury. Obviously... it didn't turn out that way in the end.

The attorneys then go to work asking general questions and then more specific questions if they wish. I was asked two questions specific to my job and John's job. That was it.

The attorneys struck 10 people in front of me so I ended up being seated as Juror #11 on this civil trial. Go figure... first time ever called... get seated!! Amazing.

I won't go blow by blow through the whole thing, but the basic gist of the case was the Plaintiff and Defendant were involved in a Motor Vehicle Accident and the Plaintiff was suing the Defendant (actually insurance co - although we weren't allowed to know that until afterwards) for back/neck pain & suffering, medical bills, etc. They took until Weds afternoon to present the case and all the arguments by the lawyers and then close. The jury received the case to begin deliberation on it Weds at 3 pm. We were there Weds until 6 pm and again today from 8:45 am through 4:00 pm when we finished and had a verdict.

In the end, the Plaintiff didn't really make his case well. He was awarded a small sum of money but nothing like what several members of the jury wanted to award him. I was pretty much the cog in the wheel because the evidence was really not there nor was the plaintiff a very credible witness. I just couldn't get much beyond -0- for the most part. I felt pretty good in the end because after it was all said and done, the Judge came to talk with us. One of the jurors asked how he thought we did in our analysis and verdict, and he basically corroborated everything I had said about the case being weak, not enough evidence, no expert medical witnesses, and a plaintiff that is not very believable. YAY ME!! I really was on the right track!! I thought so and felt a lot better about being as difficult as I was.

Now it's back to the real world and my P.A.Y.I.N.G. J.O.B.!!!! I have tons of stuff to do after this unexpected 4 days off!!

Meme & Poppy are coming in tomorrow to run around with us in our busy weekend coming up. Football Game Friday, Marching Contest Saturday, and Cross-County Meet on Saturday.

See ya!!

MA