Whoever decided that serving on a jury should be called a “duty” didn’t do society any favors. Jury duty should be called jury klatch, jury affair, jury session, or jury huddle. These names are much less Puritanical.
When something is a “duty,” people’s first instinct is to avoid it. If you detect a dirty diaper on your kid and tell your husband that it’s his turn to do diaper “duty,” he’s going to groan and begrudgingly do it. If you say, “Go bond with your son over diaper changing,” it’s a little more upbeat.
When I opened the summons, my first thoughts were not, This might be fun!
I’ll get a chance to do something for my community!
I might learn a lot about the criminal justice system!
Immediately, I tried to think of ways to get out of it. I had my boss write a letter on official stationery stating that I was essential as a medical worker. She suggested that I also tell the court about my older, ailing father. I’m his primary caretaker, and he doesn’t drive presently. These two roles make me sound oh SO indispensable to SO many people!
Another reason I’m trying to avoid jury duty is that they pay just $25 a day. I’m wondering what this is meant to cover. If you need to hire a babysitter for three days, is $75 really going to cut it? Even if you work as a minimum wage employee, you’ll lose a lot of money serving as a juror.
I wish someone with millions would bequeath their fortune to the jury duty coffers. Nowadays, $150 per day, not $25, is realistic and enticing.
I’d look forward to such an assignment if I were retired. It would be immensely educational. I’m not sure why they don’t choose only people who are retired. Surely that would not be representative of the population, but in many ways it checks off the boxes of diversity.
I’ll mail my letter to the county and see what happens. They may judge my excuses as lame. Then I’ll have no recourse but to go to Plan B. (Don’t ask!)
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