Do You Have A Verdict?

Photo by Robert Linder on Unsplash

The jury of eight entered the courtroom and sat down in the jury box.

The plaintiff and attorneys sat down. The judge draped in his black robe was seated. The courtroom deputy sheriff was standing near his computer.

The judge asked the jury, “Have you reached a verdict?”

The foreman said, “Yes”. The judge asked the foreman to hand the piece of paper to the deputy sheriff.

The judge looked over the sheet and announced the verdict saying it was signed by the foreman.

The Trial

So what was the verdict? Stay tuned. You’ll get the result at the end. No peeking though. Read the whole story first. It will be worth it.

Fourteen years ago, I got the Jury Duty summons in the mail. It told me to call a specific number in a few weeks to see if I needed to report. I called it the night before I was supposed to report. In a way, I was hoping that I had to report. I’m sure all the other people were wishing that they didn’t. There was no message, so that meant I had to report the next day.

At that time, I lived about thirty minutes away from the courthouse. I didn’t know what to expect. I had never been called before. I looked up the courthouse on Google Maps to see exactly where to go. I hadn’t been to that area before. The summons said to arrive before 8 a.m. I wasn’t really sure how long it was going to take me with the traffic, so I left a lot of time. It was too much time as you’ll find out. I pulled into the parking lot and it was empty. I thought great, I’m waaayyyy too early.

I approached the glass double doors and opened the door. As I walked in, I saw the security guard standing at the security checkpoint. They weren’t even open yet. I was the only one there. LOL!

About ten minutes later, a couple more stragglers wandered in. We were all disappointed when we had to stand around and wait. One of the guys looked out one of the windows, while the other guy just stood there. Near opening time, another security guard appeared. They started the machines up and more people started pouring in. These new people shoved ahead of us and we had trouble getting in line. Once through security, there was a woman handing out the menu for the small cafe as we walked down the hallway to the check-in area.

We all entered into a small room, that was connected to another room, where there were two women at computers. When we received our summons, we had to fill out some questions. One of the questions was if we knew any law enforcement officers. I said yes. At the time, I knew several plus my cousin was an officer. This question was probably because they might not want to put us on a criminal case since we might know an officer on the case.

We handed our summons sheet over to the women and they processed them. We were issued Juror badges and told to go into the adjacent room, which was the Jury Assembly Room. The room had rows of chairs set up. There was a split between the right and left sections. There was coffee, snack machines, and drink machines. I never used any of it. But quite a few people did take advantage of the amenities.

There were two computers located at the back of the room. You could check your email if you needed to. But you couldn’t use them to look up any information on the possible cases you would preside over.

Later, a judge came in and spoke to us, in front of a lectern, to tell us about the procedures. After that, a woman came and told us all about what was going to happen.

Compensation

Everyone was guaranteed $15/day. If you were selected for a trial and it exceeded three days, then you were paid $30 every day thereafter.

Getting Chosen

Once a judge indicates to his deputy sheriff that he needs a jury, the deputy sheriff will come down to the room and tell the person in charge.

All of the jurors have a unique number on their juror badge. They will call out a range of numbers. Those people will come up to the front and stand in line.

If you are not selected, you must wait until another deputy comes down and announces that the next judge needs a jury. And then the process will start again.

Once all of the potential jurors are selected for each case, you are taken to the outside of the courtroom. There were two ways you could go up to the courtroom. Some people took the stairs, while others took the elevator. I think I took the stairs the first day, but the elevator the next few days. Once inside the courtroom, you are seated in the gallery.

In this case, there was a plaintiff and his attorney and an attorney for a company. They were seated at two different tables. They turned their chairs around to face us. They asked us a few questions. Based on those answers, certain people were called to the juror box where additional questions were asked. The remaining people in the gallery were released from their jury duty.

I was selected to go through additional questioning in the jury box.

One of the questions asked was what your job was. If you’re weren’t employed at the time, they asked you what your most current job was. They also asked us questions about whether we’d ever been in an accident and suffered injuries.

Who was on trial?

This was a civil case. It was a guy who had been in an accident. He was suing an insurance company. Here is the kicker. He was only suing for $298.00. I know what you’re thinking right now because I was thinking the same thing at the time. His attorney’s bill was going to cost way more than that. Exactly. His attorney asked the group of us this question: “Do you think suing for just $298 is crazy?”

I was in the jury box in the front row. I couldn’t see the people behind me. The guy next to me put his arm up. I almost did but I hesitated and decided not to do it. I knew that would get you out of it but I wanted to participate in a case. There might have been a good reason why he was suing for that low amount. I thought I would give him the benefit of the doubt. The guy who put his arm up was not selected for the jury. I was.

We listened to testimony from both sides over four days. One day we had to watch a deposition from a doctor over video. It was all very interesting. I had always been interested in law. One day, the attorneys were arguing about something and we only had to work a half day.

Deliberations

During our breaks and the deliberation, we were taken to a room. The room had chairs around a long table. There was a bathroom located outside the room, in its own small room. One woman on the jury told me I looked familiar. I found out she worked at the Hallmark store near me. I told her my Mom and I had been in there several times. So we decided that must be it. She had probably seen me or even checked us out at the cash register. I found out she was from the county next to my county when I lived in New York State too. When I told her where I was originally from, she knew exactly where it was. Small world.

The Verdict

The trial lasted for four days. We decided to find for the insurance company, so the plaintiff did not get the $298.

Who was the foreman? That was me. While we were deliberating, one guy took control and talked about the facts. We had one guy that didn’t want to go our way. It took a few minutes before we convinced him. Then the main guy didn’t want to sign his name as the foreman, so I said I would do it. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to write my full name or what. I wrote my full name including my middle name. When the judge read the verdict, he said signed the foreman and my full name. That was the first time any names had been talked about from the jury.

Have you ever had jury duty? If yes, do you care to tell us the details? Or if you’re a writer, maybe you could talk about it on your ‘Stack.

Until next time, happy reading!

-Matt