Every three years I get a notice. It seems to be automatic. I must be an easy target. I have only served (been picked) on two cases. I just missed getting picked yesterday.
It was to be a civil case, my first one if I had been selected. The others were criminal cases.
I showed up at the Collin County, TX court house 45 minutes early at 7:45 AM. That’s not an early hour for me. It was 15 minutes before they were officially open, so I had to loiter in the first lobby for 15 minutes. The next entry was like an airport screening, but entry was not inhibited much by the weapons search. I let them examine my cane for concealed weaponry. None found.
Now inside and after a long walk through the building, I waited another 30 minutes at the main jury room. I wasn’t really required to be there until 8:30 am. I was amazed at how many prospective jurors ignored that requirement and came in far after the set time. The summons did not say “at your convenience anytime AFTER 8:30.”
The whole initial process is a waiting game. This day 50 people were called to show up for a 12 person jury.
The “Jury Lady” couldn’t figure out how to get her PowerPoint to work on her computer so she just read us the standard acceptable excuses we could use to get dismissed. Two people got excused immediately so now we are 48. Yep, a well oiled process they have. We got to see just about everything “Jury Lady” had on her PC.
More waiting, then at 9:00 AM a deputy bailiff came and told us the judge wasn’t ready so we had to go away for awhile and come back to court at 1:15 PM. That’s four hours and fifteen minutes by my math. Nice that the judge didn’t just make us just sit there. So what to do for 4+ hours? I went back home, a 35 minute drive each way. That kills about an hour and a quarter and burns some gas.
Back in court (more late people of course) about 1:30 PM, we all gathered in the main jury room. We all received a number tag. Numbers are better for the court people than dealing with names they can’t pronounce. They never got Kautz correct.
After that another person came in to make us swear we would be square and obey the law of the pack…
We are herded like cattle (maybe it was sheep) up to the third floor court room. Another very long walk for a guy with PN and a cane but I needed the exercise. Another 30 minute wait while the bailiff (the real one) “prepared the court room for our entry.” (She must have taken off for the morning like the rest of us… Just kidding… the whole process is a big time killer.)
We all had to line up in two rows by number. I was number 24, the last person in row one. Number 5 shows up late and gets in line behind me. Of course he wasn’t around to hear the instructions. “Hey dude”, the guy #23 in front of me and I tell #5, “you get to go to the front of the line.” At that moment his IQ seemed to be about as high as his tag number. After MUCH coaxing, we convinced him (somewhat) that we were telling the truth and that he was holding up the progress. We all had to sit in the courtroom by our number order.
Finally we are all packed into very narrow seats facing the lawyers, plaintiff, defendant, judge and bailiff. Let the jury selection begin! It was clear this was going to take the rest of the day and that the trial wouldn’t start until the next day. I have been through this several times so I knew what was coming. The judge confirmed the expectation.
I won’t go into all the details. Each lawyer has a period of time to ask the prospective jury members questions to “pack the jury” favorable to their side, whether plaintive or defendant. Of course it is called finding a neutral jury before the evidence is presented, with as little bias as possible. It’s the way it works and I think well enough. They have to whittle 48 people down to 12.
We were told it would be a short case. All we were to do is to decide how much we should award the plaintiff (if anything) as a victim of an auto accident. The defendant already admits full guilt so it wasn’t going to be guilt/no guilt case. (We have all seen the ambulance chaser ads on the TV.) We were asked by the plaintiff’s lawyer how we felt about awarding LARGE punitive damage awards.
I talked a lot (probably the most) but so did a lot of the other panel members. So I asked the lawyer if he meant like the well known McDonald’s Hot Coffee case. He kind of exploded at me how bad McDonald’s was and it was fair “punishment”, etc. I am pretty sure that took me off the panel right there. He wanted an emotional jury for his upcoming sob story. His mistake, as I would have been on his side but probably not to make his client (and him) rich beyond their fondest dreams. No “win the lottery” from me. I think I would have been very fair though.
The problem was I had already figured out the case just from what I observed and what was said. It would be a short case, just come up with a dollar amount to award.
I could see from the female defendant’s demeanor she is a long time alcoholic. The morning delay was probably to get her sober enough to stand trial. Her cell phone went off during the jury selection and she was fumbling how to get it turned off. The disgusted looking bailiff took the phone away from her. To me she seemed like she had been dealing with this woman all morning.
I decided the auto accident was probably a DUI. That’s the reason there was no need to determine guilt. All we would have to do decide is how much to make her pay. Insurance was not to be known or discussed. During a break I noticed this woman needed help from her male companion to find the rest room.
On the other hand the plaintiff’s lawyer was doing a lot of talking about chiropractor bills. Personally I have a prejudice about chiropractics. Some people swear by the system, I swear about it. Neither lawyer asked the panel how we felt about this profession. To me it is in the back of the boat with the lawyers. Necessary for sure, but are not always of high ethical standards, I asked to talk to the judge privately and was going to discuss my prejudice. This was the sort of prejudice the lawyers should have been looking for but in the time limits of jury selection, it never came up.
The judge put me off until the jury had been selected. He called me in to say he hadn’t forgotten me but that I wasn’t selected anyway. So I told him my point would be moot and not important at this time. So I did not say more.
Final Impression: I was stunned by how easy it was to see what the case was all about even before the jury was selected. I had never been drawn to such as obvious conclusion before. Could I have been a fair juror? I think I would have made, and influenced the jury to make, a fair decision based on the facts once I heard them. I have no pity for drunk drivers. I hope a fair settlement is made by the chosen dozen.