I didn't mention it before but I got a notice of Jury Service for the week of December 26, 2022. And I have just completed my service without having to report for it.
I dunno how it works elsewhere but out here in Los Angeles, Jury Duty is a "one week, one trial" deal. A computer picks a certain number of jurors at random, excluding those who have served within the last twelve months. You're in the pool if you have a California driver's license or identification card, or you are registered to vote in the County of Los Angeles. If you're picked, you get the notice I received to be on call for five days.
Each day, the folks in charge of assembling juries at the courthouse in question look and see how many juries they may need to seat the next day. There's a certain number of people they think they'll need in the jurors' lounge in order to fill that number of juries and the computer randomly selects which "on call" people will have to report. Each night you call in or check the website to find out if you have to come in the next morning.
That info is available by phone after 7 PM but I've discovered the website has it much earlier, which is why I just found out they don't need me tomorrow. I'm going to guess that, this being the week between Christmas and New Year's, they haven't needed to fill many juries. The courthouse wasn't even open on Monday.
So it's like one lottery determines whether you'll have a week of jury service and when you do, another lottery decides if you'll report the next day to the jurors' lounge. Each time a jury needs to be filled, a third lottery plucks a certain number of folks out of the jurors' lounge to report to a courtroom to be quizzed as potential jurors.
This is the fifth or sixth time I've won the first lottery and had to be available for a week. Once before, it was like this week…I didn't have to report at all. Three or four times, I was selected by the second lottery but not the third. I just sat in the jurors' lounge playing on my laptop or iPad until they'd filled all the juries they had to fill that day…and then they sent us all home.
One time, by one of those weird coincidences that comprise my life, one of the other folks who had to report that day was my longtime buddy and occasional collaborator, Scott Shaw! We just sat there all day and talked about comic books and cartoons and mutual friends.
I have never been quizzed about perhaps being on a specific jury. If I had been and I was accepted, I would have had to report each day for the length of that trial. They generally tell you in advance if a trial is expected to last for a long time and give you the option of opting out.
It might, I think, be interesting to serve on a jury but if this kind of thing is hereditary, I'll never make it. My father, after he retired from his job, was dreadfully bored much of the time. When he drew jury duty, he was delighted. It was something to do and a chance to feel useful. This was back when jury service lasted one week instead of one day and during that week, he was quizzed about being part of several juries…
…but he was never accepted. Once the attorney for the defense ascertained that the job my father had retired from was with the Internal Revenue, he was instantly vetoed. He assumed they assumed that he'd be prejudiced in favor of the prosecution. Me, I think they'd veto once they found out I work on the Groo comic books.
By contrast, my mother served on several juries and even played the foreman of a jury in an episode of the TV show, L.A. Law. That's her in the red blouse in the photo a few inches above this paragraph. She found it more exhausting than sitting on a real jury and she later complained, "I didn't even get to send anyone to the slammer!" The whole story of her day of stardom can be read here. It's a lot more interesting than my week of jury non-service.