So explain to me, you lawyers out there, why I can’t bring my laptop with me to jury duty tomorrow. I understand that I can’t use it while I’m in the jury box. But I don’t understand why I can’t have it while I’m in the juror waiting area which, if it’s anything at all like the one in Newark, is going to be big and annoying and have Jerry Springer on TV, forcing me to listen to one of the shows on television that has been scientifically proven to make you dumber just by passing a TV with still pictures of it on the set.
I have an air card. I could get my email and do my work while waiting to be picked. And I need to do my work, because three or four projects are crashing down at once, and, well, I worked most of the weekend to catch up. And I’m still behind.
Believe me when I tell you that I’m going to register a complaint with whomever I’m supposed to complain tomorrow. I may never get picked for jury duty in Richmond again, but damn, I’m going to complain about not being able to bring my laptop.
We can’t have our cellphones, either. Okay, I can understand that part. But not the laptops. What, do they think we’re terrorists or something?
Stupid. Professionals need their laptops to stay on top of work they’re missing while sitting in the jury pool room.
Must be a Richmond or Henrico County policy. Fairfax County provides wifi in the jury waiting area. Although when I was called for jury duty last year, I didn’t get that much time to use it – it only works in the waiting area; not by the court rooms, and you won’t be allowed to use it(or should for that matter) in the court room while people from your group are being selected for a trial.
[another difference between counties. In Fairfax, if you weren’t seated on a jury for a trial, you’re almost certain to be thanked and sent home; you’re done! Other counties send you back to the waiting room for another round.]
This is a reason why local elections matter. In Fairfax, the Clerk of the Court is responsible for jury duty policies, including amenities like wifi access, etc. The current one (just re-elected) was responsible for these and a few other improvements in how the local courts operate.
Just find a way to get rejected by one of the sides: become suddenly a racist, anti-feminist (or anti-male) bloodthirsty chauvinist who is for capital punishment for every offense etc.
I know people who escaped every summon this way…
I’ve also read of people who were charged with contempt of court for doing this. I assume they somehow let on that this was an act to get out of selection.
Personally, I’m not concerned. I’m an engineer and by my nature, I am not swayed by emotional arguments of any kind. I don’t think either side’s lawyers would want me on any jury – nobody in court seriously believes that facts alone can win a case, and they would hate to have to deal with a juror that challenges their assumption.
You don’t understand Meryl. In our legal system, “juror” is kind of a mild slur. The lawyers, judges, bailiffs and other court workers resent the fact that they have to involve us common buffoons in their nice orderly system, and they treat us contemptuously because of it. Remember, a “good” case is one where the evidence is so strong on one side or the other that they don’t even have to bother taking it to trial. Then the lawyers can just settle it amongst themselves like gentlemen with a plea bargain. And believe me, that is the way they like it. They think THEY should be the arbiters of justice, rather than us. Jury trials are messy, expensive and uncertain, and they hate everything that has to do with it, including the jurors.