Jury Duty Complete

The 502 Jury

Yesterday afternoon, around 4:15pm, 9 out of 12 jurors were able to come to an agreement of a verdict on the case that we had been working on for the past 3 weeks.

We were in deliberation for a full 2-1/2 days. I think we were fair, conscientious, thorough, and didn't rush. (although, if we hadn't submitted it by 4:15 yesterday, we would have had to return Monday morning at 9:00am.) Deliberation was quite a process. Because it was a civil trial, 9 out of 12 of the jurors had to agree upon the verdict. There were many tough decisions and complicated calculations that had to be made. Honestly, we were all exhausted by the end of each day.

It turns out that I was the only one who had experience of serving on a jury before. Because of this, my fellow jurors decided that I should be the jury foreman. I didn't see that one coming, but was happy to step up, and try to keep us all on track. I think it went well.

It went so well, in fact, that although we may not have all agreed, everyone managed to stay thoughtful and respectful of each others opinions. As my fellow juror, Kathy said, "I love the idea that people can disagree without being disagreeable and I really felt we managed to treat each other with respect at all times."

In the end, we were able to come to a respectful consensus that thoroughly and thoughtfully considered the needs and perspectives of all parties involved. (slightly paraphrasing what fellow juror Brian said.) We were so elated after coming to a verdict, and we all liked each other so much, that we asked the bailiff to take a group photo of us as we waited for the court to prepare to hear our final verdict. I'm guessing there aren't many groups of jurors out there who enjoy each others company enough to want to take a photo with each other.

I was honored to be part of such a interesting, diverse, fair group of people who all took our job so seriously and truly gave it our all. Makes me more of a believer in our legal system and in human kind in general.

To top it all off, I came home afterwards to find my first check from the Judicial Council of California. We get compensated $15/day for serving plus $2.50/day for parking. This check covers 6 of the 10 days that I served. (we don't get paid for the first day while they are selecting a jury.)


big bucks for my service in jury duty