Jury Duty

On Monday I had jury duty. I got the notice a few weeks before Christmas and had been dreading it ever since. In order to make it to the courthouse in time Tony had to take a day off of work to get the kids out the door. Getting the kids off to school in the morning has always been my job and I don't think Tony has ever had to do it, like ever, so I was nervous about that as well as making it into Annapolis at the crack of dawn. I left around 6:45 and while traffic was consistently heavy the whole way I was never at a dead stop and ended up making it to the parking garage right around 7:10 am. 

As I was getting out of the van I saw a lady who looked a little worried and she asked me if I knew the best way to get to the street from the garage. I told her I didn't but saw a sign for the elevator and we headed that way together. As we walked, another woman joined us and we all realized we were downtown for jury duty. There was a free shuttle running from the garage to the courthouse but it didn't begin running until 7:30 am so we decided to just walk the 6 blocks instead of wait. We made small talk the whole way, talking about our kids, jobs etc. 

We were among the first to arrive and after checking in, we were told where to sit while everyone else got checked in. While we were waiting we were given a paper that asked if we'd be able to sit for a criminal trial that they thought would last 7 days. We had to give a reason if we couldn't and I didn't have one but I was immediately nervous I'd be chosen and Tony would have to take off a lot of work for me to be there. Once everyone was seated and had filled out their paper we were given a 30 minute break and told that once it was over we'd be doing a jury pool for the criminal trial. 

As we sat back down from our break the bailiff read our name aloud and we called out our number. I was number 68 of 125 called. There were 180 of us there that day so the chances of being called were extremely high. We were told we had to sit in our assigned seats and wait until the judge notified us he was ready...and an hour passed....and another hour...which made it 11:15 or so when the judge came down into the room to talk to us. 

The judge began by apologizing for wasting our time and then went on to explain that he'd had some issues with the attorney's handling the criminal trial we were set to hear. He explained that he had made some preliminary rulings about the case in the week prior but found out later that some of the information was incorrect which led to him having to reverse some rulings and opened the door for an appeal. So, instead of us listening to the case it was now going to an appellate court. All of that had been happening in the several hours we'd been sitting and since there was no case to be heard anymore, they sent us home. We were told at that point that we wouldn't be needed for the rest of the week and you could just hear this huge collective sigh of relief fill the room. 

Since I had to go in this week I should be good to go for at least the next three years. Thank goodness.